Kaitlyn Hughes | news editor

Ed Wesolowski was having an off day since the moment he woke up on Jan. 5, 2025.

He felt run down and groggy.

When his daughter Patty Wesolowski asked if he and the rest of the family could go to the Duquesne women’s basketball game against Fordham University, he was hesitant. He ended up going anyway.

Wesolowski arrived during half time. He met up with his friend, and they stood at one of the counters that overlooks the arena. As the pair talked, Wesolowski felt dazed and short of breath. But he didn’t think he was having a heart attack.

Seconds later his legs went numb and he hit the ground, splitting his head open. His friend said it sounded like a bowling ball.

But in the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse, he suffered a widow-maker heart attack, described as a blockage in the largest coronary artery, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

The Duquesne Sports Medicine team helped to revive Wesolowski, after he flat lined for 90 seconds. He was 46 at the time.

One year later, Wesolowski and his family have learned not to take things for granted.

“Be where your feet are,” he said. “[I’m] just trying to live life as normal with a new appreciation of how things work.”

“I remember thinking that’s sort of weird, and then I remember being revived,” he said.

When Katie Wesolowski saw her husband lying on the ground in a puddle of blood she started screaming

“Help! Help! Somebody help me!”

“I saw my whole world crumble in front of me,” she said.

The moment the Duquesne women’s medical staff caught word of the emergency they took action.

Travis Moyer, assistant athletic trainer, assessed the situation as Liz Lee, a sports performance coach, grabbed the crash bag and AED. Ryan Nussbaum, the team physician, began to do chest compressions, and Moyer operated the AED.

Moyer said there were no nerves going through his mind because the team trains carefully for emergency situations. But there was relief when Wesolowski was revived.

“Obviously, we’re trained to do it, but utilizing it and training for it are two different things,” Moyer said.

Between the time Wesolowski first passed out and when he was revived, nine minutes had gone by, he said.

As he woke up in a puddle of sweat and blood from his head being cracked open, Wesolowski noticed the crowd had gone silent, and they were all looking at him.

His wife began hugging everyone around her.

“In a matter of minutes, it turned all around,” she said. “I probably hugged every single person around that area.”

Wesolowski said he was glad he was in an arena with a sports medicine team that is trained in CPR rather than at home by himself when he had the heart attack.

“If it didn’t happen where I was … It would have been a lot worse,” he said.

It wasn’t until he was in the ambulance that he realized what had happened. The paramedics told him that the medical staff had saved his life.

“That’s when it hit me,” Wesolowski said. “It was a lot to take in when it first happened.”

He spent three nights in the hospital where he received eight stitches on his head, two stints in his heart and a slew of medications. But four days later he went back to his normal schedule and attended his daughter’s basketball game.

“I tried to get on with my life as normal,” he said.

Patty Wesolowski said seeing her dad bounce back so fast showed her and her two siblings, Eddie and Franky Wesolowski, that he can do anything.

“My dad has always been a superhero,” she said.

After the incident, Wesolowski went through cardio physical therapy for six months, worked to get his blood pressure down and began pursuing a healthy diet.

Katie Wesolowski said it took her a little while to get past everything, and she still worries about him.

“You just never know,” she said.

Wesolowski did not just make changes solely to his physical health, but also to his mental health as well.

He became grateful for his day-to-day activities such as brushing his teeth, taking a shower and making a cup of coffee in the morning. He stopped worrying about the future, and instead chose to be excited about upcoming events.

“I started to enjoy the anticipation of things,” he said.

His entire family began living with this same mindset. His wife said they booked a cruise and trip to Walt Disney World Resort in April because they “never know what tomorrow brings.”

On Jan. 5 this year, she threw a party for Wesolowski because she wanted him to celebrate his life.

“I didn’t want him to think of that day as doom and gloom,” she said. “It was an emotional, anxious time for him as the year anniversary came up. I’m sure that date is always going to be hard for him.”

Wesolowski said he is forever grateful for the work done by the medical staff that day.

“Now, I am a Duquesne fan for life.”

Kaitlyn Hughes can be reached at hughesk10@duq.edu