CLEVELAND — As far back as he can remember, Raheem Stanfield has loved to play basketball.
“Basketball is an important part of my life,” he said.
But there was a time when he couldn’t play the game. He went into cardiac arrest in Oct. 2016 at the rec center at his alma mater, Case Western Reserve University.
That’s something he doesn’t remember.
“The first memory that I remember was being in an MRI machine, and so anybody who’s had an MRI knows it’s just, you’re just in this white tube and so I kind of come to in a completely white room and I’m freaking out because I don’t know what’s going on,” he said.
Stanfield learned he went into cardiac arrest and had a minor stroke after playing pickup basketball. A neurosurgery resident saw him go down and performed CPR before paramedics arrived. That stranger at the time saved his life.
“We’re strangers, but now we like email back and forth from time to time just checking in on each other, you know, making sure everything is good,” Stanfield said. “We kind of have that relationship now.”
When this happened, he was 25 and healthy. But a few weeks earlier, he felt off. He felt some fluttering in his heart and shortness of breath, so he called his doctor.
Stanfield had testing scheduled for Monday and his heart event happened Friday.
“I did have exercise induced asthma as a kid and every now and then it would flare back up,” he said. “So, I thought it could be related to that, but I wasn’t sure.”
When he woke up in the hospital, he couldn’t move the left side of his body and had to re-learn how to walk, talk, eat, and eventually play basketball.
Doctors implanted an ICD, a defibrillator and pacemaker, in his chest.
And after six weeks at University Hospitals Parma Medical Center, Stanfield had months of therapy in an outpatient rehab facility.
“Losing independence was probably one of the biggest frustrations,” he said.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S and this Heart Month, Raheem Stanfield is sharing his story of survival. The now 32-year-old is back on the basketball court and even earned tickets to last year’s Super Bowl after a cardiac arrest at age 25. @SpectrumNews1OH pic.twitter.com/ErxrSSpb3P
— Micaela Marshall (@MMarshallTV) February 10, 2023
Stanfield was dedicated to big goals for himself and wanted to prove he could do anything he set his mind to.
By April 2017, he was back on the court. That same year, he ran two 5Ks.
But after years of doing well and exercising safely, he had another heart event in 2021.
His heart started racing, and he felt lightheaded while playing basketball. Stanfield was in for another shock, this time from his ICD.
“They told me when they inserted it that it’s going to feel like a horse kicks you in the chest and I would say that’s pretty accurate,” he said. “Like I was just, you know, walking across the floor when it went off and it kind of threw me to the ground.”
That helped uncover the root of his issues: a heart disease that presents in adulthood called arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy or ARVC. After the diagnosis, Stanfield had a catheter ablation to remove scar tissue from his heart.
“Ever since I had that operation, everything has been back to normal,” he said. “No matter how hard I go or how strenuous the exercise, my heart stays perfectly in pace.”
Stanfield’s journey became his ticket to the Super Bowl last year. Cleveland Browns player Denzel Ward’s foundation, Make Them Know Your Name, gifted him two tickets to the game.
“Little silver lining to everything, right?” Stanfield said.
Make Them Know Your Name is a heart health organization founded in honor of Ward’s late father. He died unexpectedly of cardiac arrest at age 46. The foundation focuses on prevention, CPR education, and AED donations.
“I appreciate them for what they did for me, but even more so for what they do in the community,” Stanfield said.
The now 32-year-old said his story shows anyone can overcome difficult circumstances, and he hopes to inspire others to learn CPR.
“It could save a life,” he said.
Stanfield’s cardiac electrophysiologist, Dr. Judith Mackall, said his story has many parallels to the cardiac arrest Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin experienced during a game in January.
“When you’re doing CPR what you’re doing is, you’re keeping the heart perfused enough that it keeps electrical activity there,” Mackall said. “Just like Damar Hamlin, the power of CPR has made a huge difference in survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.”
This month, Hamlin launched a social media campaign with the American Heart Association called the #3 for Heart CPR Challenge. It’s encouraging others to learn the life-saving measure.
