{"id":238521,"date":"2026-05-20T20:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T20:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/238521\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T20:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T20:59:10","slug":"nyc-teen-basketball-player-who-collapsed-from-cardiac-arrest-during-game-reunited-with-fdny-heroes-who-saved-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/238521\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC teen basketball player who collapsed from cardiac arrest during game reunited with FDNY heroes who saved him"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s a heartfelt thank you.<\/p>\n<p>A grateful 16-year-old Brooklyn basketball player who suffered\u00a0cardiac arrest during a game last year was reunited at an emotional ceremony Wednesday with the FDNY heroes who saved\u00a0his life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWithout them, I wouldn\u2019t be here right now, talking to you guys. I\u2019d be somewhere in a place, probably in the sky,\u201d Jack McMurrer, of Bensonhurst, said at the FDNY\u2019s 30th annual \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2019\/05\/21\/bagpiper-who-had-heart-attack-reunited-with-first-responders\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Second Chance\u201d event.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Jack McMurrer, 16, was reunited with the FDNY members who saved his life last year.<\/p>\n<p>McMurrer, New Utrecht High, was on the bench in March 2025, when he suddenly collapsed, stunning his teammates.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t remember any of it. I remember waking up in the hospital and seeing my mom next to me and just wondering, like, where did this all go wrong?\u201d McMurrer said.<\/p>\n<p>EMS workers rushed to the game and quickly began chest compressions, then shocked his heart back into beating regularly.<\/p>\n<p>McMurrer, who was suffering from a \u201cv-fib arrest,\u201d\u00a0 later got an emergency surgery, now uses\u00a0a defibrillator, and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DYh_v5JBy3L\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> is still playing basketball,<\/a> he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou guys saved my life. Without you guys coming in that day, coming in clutch, I wouldn\u2019t be here right now,\u201d he said, while thanking members of FDNY Engine Company 279.<\/p>\n<p>McMurrer,16,  is still playing basketball. FDNY<\/p>\n<p>His father, Tom McMurrer, said he was blown away by the paramedics\u2019 coolheadedness.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was amazed at how calm they were. A\u00a0 great team works together, like, the Knicks last night, right? That\u2019s how they worked,\u201d he said.\u201dThey saved my son\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that he was grateful for a nurse and doctor at the game, who performed chest compressions until EMS workers arrived.<\/p>\n<p>Jack McMurrer thanked his FDNY heroes at the ceremony. Aristide Economopoulos for NY Post<\/p>\n<p>Paramedic Sam Andrews, part of the team that saved McMurrer, was thrilled to later learn the boy was fine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was one of the most special jobs I\u2019ve ever done\u2014that we\u2019ve ever done,\u201d Adams said.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is why we do all of this. It\u2019s a second chance, a second chance for him,\u201d said firefighter Kendall Williams, who also helped rescessitate\u00a0McMurrer.<\/p>\n<p>Six other victims of serious heart trouble were also reunited with their FDNY heroes at the event at Nicotra\u2019s Ballroom on Staten Island Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Other victims included a jogger who had a\u00a0heart attack on the West Side Highway and an off-duty cop who suffered cardiac arrest while spending an afternoon with his son.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a heartfelt thank you. A grateful 16-year-old Brooklyn basketball player who suffered\u00a0cardiac arrest during a game last&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[32,194,25571,47032,57,9,56,63,65,64,58],"class_list":["post-238521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-emergency","tag-fdny","tag-heart-attacks","tag-high-school-basketball","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}