The Oklahoma State basketball team learns CPR, inspired by a staff member’s past scare

STILL WATER (KOKH) — They usually practice dribbling and shooting on the field. But on Wednesday, the Oklahoma State men’s basketball team learned hand-only CPR.

“At the end of the day, this can really save the life of a loved one, just everyone’s life in general,” senior point guard Khalil Brantley said.

And for the Cowboys, it’s a little more personal. Head coach Steve Lutz spoke about a student-athlete early in his coaching career who suffered cardiac arrest and sadly passed away. While team manager Deshawn Caldwell suffered from the same experience and had to talk about it for a long time.

“Nothing has ever come up on physical exams or anything like that, so it didn’t feel like I had a sudden collapse out of nowhere,” Caldwell said.

Caldwell said it happened after one of the best games of his life, but as Steven Embree of the American Heart Association told FOX 25, many athletes are victims of cardiac arrest.

“Up to 23,000 youth across the country suffer cardiac arrest each year, about 40% of which occur in athletics,” he said.

Caldwell said thankfully his coach was there for him.

“Fortunately, my trainer at the time was familiar with cardiopulmonary resuscitation and was able to intervene quickly. This allowed him to intervene and perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, which actually revived me at the time,” he said.

Brantley added that he is prepared in the event someone goes into cardiac arrest.

“Yes, I definitely think I could do it, especially because of today’s training, the little training steps I did earlier. I think I could definitely do it, yes sir,” he said.

Caldwell added that he hopes Wednesday’s event will enable some of the players to step in and save someone’s life, just as his high school basketball coach saved his life.