GREENSBORO, N.C. — A North Carolina father is pushing for more education in classrooms on heart health and responding to emergency situations.
This comes 10 years after his son’s death, and he’s using this painful tragedy to bring awareness to the issues during American Heart Month.
So many were stunned after watching NFL Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin's collapse on the field back in January.
Hamlin lived to tell his story, but unfortunately that was not the case for Joshua Level, a 17-year-old who was getting scholarships from some of the best schools across the country to play basketball, but never got to pursue his dream.
“Ironically, the phone was ringing, and I picked it up, and someone told me they were doing CPR on my son, and I just screamed,” Joseph Level said.
February marks 10 years since Joseph Level lost his son Joshua Level, a 17-year-old junior and high school basketball star, who collapsed on the court with only four minutes left in his game.
“I make it to the hospital right when the ambulance gets there, and then they work on him for about 45 minutes, and then they called it and just unbelievable. Unbelievable,” Level said.
Medical examiners told Joshua’s father he died from a virus infection called Myocaritis that inflamed his heart muscle.
One of the symptoms is cardiac arrest, and Level says his son went into cardiac arrest during the game.
His father says what happened to his son is a reminder of why he’s urging school administrators across the country to make it mandatory for schools to become CPR and Automated External Defibrillator or AED certified.
“We saw the hospital do heroic efforts to try to resuscitate my son unsuccessfully. Since then, I have become CPR certified, and AED certified as well,” Level said.
Level says after his son’s death, Joshua’s friends became certified too.
“Let’s make it a priority, so that no family will have to deal with what we had to go through, but if something happens, you can celebrate the victory like the Hamlin’s,” Level explained.
According to the American Heart Association, about 90% of people who suffer from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest die. CPR, especially if performed the right way can double or even triple a victim’s chance of survival.
