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UNT Dallas Law Students Save Professor During In-Class Heart Attack

The episode shows that immediate bystander CPR and quick coordination with emergency responders can keep a collapsed patient alive.

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.