Turlock Teen Who Nearly Died On Basketball Court Shares Gratitude With Rescuers

TURLOCK (CBS13) — A Turlock teenager stopped breathing and fell to the court during basketball practice.

Jake Zylstra is a quiet, tall young man who doesn't quite remember what happened, but he does know why he's standing.

The images from the reunion wouldn't have come out if heroes hadn't come to the surface to safe his life.

Zylstra sent a heartfelt message from his hospital bed a few weeks ago, after a near-death experience. While playing basketball for Pittman High School in November, Zylstra went into cardiac arrest.

"Dom was holding on to Jake and lowering him down to the ground and I could see right away that he was not looking good," said Judy Marable.

She's the coach's wife and was one of the witnesses that night. But she was able to lend more than just moral support. She had just finished an important course.

"The is I had just taken a CPR class on the Thursday before," she said. "I said I needed to start compressions--my husband gave a couple of breaths--and we got going--and it was just kind of a blur from there."

It didn't look good

"I didn't think he was going to survive--but I knew that we gave him a chance," she said.

Turlock Fire paramedics took over, arriving within minutes.

"We filtered in through our normal positions, we went through our normal protocols, administered I believe it was five shocks to him due to the cardiac rhythm that he was in," said Nate Benner.

A month later, Zylstra was able to huddle with his heroes on the same court where he nearly took his last breath.

"It scared me a lot," he said.

But that fear has turned to gratitude, with a big thank you to the coach's wife and a surprise stop at the fire station.

"That was a pretty special occasion for us--it doesn't happen very often -maybe something you'd experience once or twice in your career," Benner said.

Even though Zylstra's taken a time out from his basketball days, he's still being recruited by the same fire department who stepped up big time. He's considering it after experiencing their life-saving work first-hand.