Overview
- A law professor at the University of North Texas at Dallas collapsed from a heart attack while teaching and was kept alive by classmates who acted without hesitation.
- Students called 911, guided the arriving ambulance into the building, and a classmate with military medical training performed repeated chest compressions until paramedics took over.
- Paramedics transported the professor to a nearby Baylor emergency department where doctors delivered electric shocks to restore a stable heart rhythm and later stabilized him.
- Professor Mike Maslanka publicly credited his students with saving his life and received visits from several of them during his hospital recovery.
- UNT Health physicians and the students emphasized the incident as a clear case for wider CPR training and emergency preparedness on campus, a change that could improve survival in future cardiac emergencies.