Incredible Story Of A Dickinson Man Brought Back To Life

Time froze in fear at the West River Community Center in Dickinson, North Dakota on Monday the 17th

Scary, intense moments can do that. A bustling place can go silent in just seconds when a man suddenly collapses. 52-year-old Brent Seaks was all set to get out on the court, halftime had just finished at his city basketball league game when he crumbled to the floor. The time was 8:55 pm. He had no pulse.

For 5 minutes he lay dead, with a trio of heroes working on him

Actions were swift when Seaks fell, a couple of people ran off to grab some defibrillators that were in the building, two Dickinson firemen Mark Selle and Dusty Grosulak raced over to his body, including Brian O'Hara ( a doctor ) - NO PULSE. The trio could tell immediately Brent had suffered a quick seizure - CPR STARTED. After 5 minutes and 180 compressions, Brent's lifeless body came back. His wife Kristin was there by his side when he eventually stood up.

Dickinson Hospital to CHI St. Alexius Bismarck

The only thing Brent remembers is waking up in the Dickinson ER. There he stayed for the night, then was transported via ambulance to CHI St. Alexius - ICU. As you can imagine his cell phone was flooded with voice mail and text messages. As tried to put together what happened, slowly he found out "Who the players were", as to how he relayed it to me on the phone this afternoon. The men who saved his life either traded off giving him mouth-to-mouth, or it was just one person. Through the next couple of days, he had a series of tests done and now he is the owner AND wearer of a built-in pacemaker. Brent had no history of heart failure and he was told that severe dehydration and a bigger than average heart muscle is what caused his collapse.

Reunion with two of the heroes from that night

Just last Monday night, at Berg Elementary School, Brent had a chance to look his two heroes right in the eye ( AND he had a nice bottle of whiskey for each of them, including O'Hara who was at home under the weather ) and thank them for bringing him back to life. "I will always feel connected to those guys for the rest of my life". For the next 3-6 months, Brent will be unable to join his team, however, the best part is still to come.

A basketball game will be rescheduled in grand style

Remember the game that Brent last participated in? After his scary fall that night, so many people were, rightly so, in shock. The game was postponed. Brian wants to be there when it's rescheduled, and the beer and pizza are on him at the post-game gathering!