LITTLE ROCK, AR (KATV) \u2014 What started as a regular high school basketball game in Cabot quickly turned into a life or death emergency when a referee collapsed on the court after suffering cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n
Nosakhere Holcomb was officiating a Cabot girls Junior Varsity basketball game in November when he began to feel dizzy during the second quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m standing there and I start feeling a little bit dizzy, and I remember saying to myself, okay at halftime you\u2019re going to need to eat something and drink some water,\u201d Holcomb said.<\/p>\n
Holcomb never made it to halftime. He collapsed on the court, suffering cardiac arrest as players, coaches, and fans watched in shock.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey saw me die, during a basketball game,\u201d Holcomb said.<\/p>\n
Cabot High School Athletic Trainer Jennifer Asberry-Mathis rushed onto the court, joined by parents in the stands who had medical training. Nurse Denise Hicks, whose child plays for the team, began performing chest compressions while others worked to get an automated external defibrillator (AED.)<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never think it\u2019s going to happen to you,\u201d Asberry-Mathis said. \u201cYou train for it and you pray it never happens and it did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holcomb was shocked with an AED and regained a pulse before being transported to the hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever they did is what allowed me to be taken to the hospital and make it to the CCU, and get a stent put in my heart,\u201d Holcomb said. \u201cNone of that\u2019s possible if those nurses aren\u2019t here, if that woman isn\u2019t there to take care of me. If those parents aren\u2019t here, I\u2019m not here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Doctors later discovered Holcomb had a 99% blockage in his main artery. He now has a heart stent and a heart monitor.<\/p>\n
Nurse Denise Hicks said the moments on the court were uncertain.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhenever we saw him on the court and were taking care of him on the court we weren\u2019t sure what was going to happen,\u201d Hicks said.<\/p>\n
Another nurse and parent, Katie Boyd, said seeing Holcomb afterward was emotional.<\/p>\n
\u201cWatching the video was definitely emotional, but very happy and blessed that his life isn\u2019t finished here on earth,\u201d Boyd said.<\/p>\n
Weeks later, Holcomb returned to the Cabot High School gym, walking through a tunnel of cheering students and staff as he reunited with the people who saved his life.<\/p>\n
In the Edo language of Nigeria, the name Nosakhere can mean God stands by me. For Holcomb, that meaning became real inside a high school gym.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasketball saved my life,\u201d Holcomb said. \u201cBasketball literally saved my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cabot Public Schools are considered heart safe schools, meaning staff are trained for cardiac emergencies and AEDs are readily available. Holcomb has since returned to the court and continues doing what he loves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LITTLE ROCK, AR (KATV) \u2014 What started as a regular high school basketball game in Cabot quickly turned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-370382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}