MEQUON, Wis. (WTMJ) – A Wisconsin college student says his friend’s quick thinking saved his life after he suddenly went into cardiac arrest last fall.
That friend was recognized this week for his efforts.
“Suddenly, you’re being told, ‘You died. You flatlined three times,’” Humberto Barraza remembered being told when he woke up in the hospital.
He is lucky to be alive.
“Imagine waking up in a strange place, no recollection of anything that happened in the past week,” Barraza added.
Back in October, Barraza thought he was just practicing a dance routine in his Concordia University dormitory in Wisconsin.
The next moment, he was in cardiac arrest and seizing.
Thankfully, one of Barraza’s best friends was in the room to save his life.
“When you’re there and you got to do this to save your friend’s life right now, you just got to do it,” Aidan Batiansila said. “You can’t question it. You got to do it.”
Batiansila performed CPR until first responders arrived.
Without Batiansila, things could have been very different for Barraza.
“Whenever I tell people who say, ‘You saved his life,’ well, no. I think God really saved my friend’s life right there,” Batiansila said.
Barraza doesn’t remember the incident or the days after. He was in the hospital for almost a month.
Since then, he hasn’t been able to return to school and needs a cane to walk. Barraza found out he has Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, which causes his heart to beat abnormally fast.
On Wednesday, Barraza returned to school for a ceremony that honored him, his friend and the first responders.
His father thanked everyone through an interpreter.
“I want to thank all of you for saving my son, for saving his life,” Barraza’s father said.
Barraza went through one of the scariest episodes anyone could ever experience, but despite that, he’s in good spirits. He’s back to cracking jokes with his friends and he’s got a positive outlook.
“So I flatlined three times in total, but I’m good now,” Barraza said. “I’m OK now, heart’s beating. Everything is fine.”
He’s learning to live again with the help of his community.
“You hear about it, right? On TV, but you don’t really think about, ‘Well, if this happened to me, who would come help?’ Everybody, apparently,” Barraza said.
From hospital visits to physical therapy to just sharing a laugh, his friends and family have been by his side.
Doctors expect Barraza to make a full recovery and he expects on returning to school in the fall.
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