Ahmed '09 and Wrestling Coach Revive Heart Attack Victim

File under awesome: Jamal Ahmed '09 and wrestling coach Drew Black happened to be on the scene yesterday afternoon when an alumnus collapsed from a heart attack while running on a treadmill at the Andersen Fitness Center.

Ahmed and Black reacted quickly with a defibrillator and began administering CPR, reviving him and keeping him conscious until the EMT's arrived.

From the Argus:

Drew Black was in the Andersen Fitness Center on Friday working out before his 1:10 Introduction to Strength Training class when Chester Arnold ’77, who was running on one of the fitness center’s treadmills at the time, collapsed and lost consciousness. Black and student Jamal Ahmed ’09, who was in the fitness center at the time, immediately rushed to Arnold and evaluated his condition. Arnold was not breathing and had no pulse, so Black and Ahmed retrieved the automatic external defibrillator (AED) outside the fitness center and set to work on Arnold.

Ahmed delivered a shock from the defibrillator to Arnold, who was still unresponsive, so Ahmed began to perform CPR. After two rounds of CPR—each consisting of 30 chest compressions and two breaths into Arnold’s mouth—Arnold regained consciousness and began gasping for air.

“He couldn’t say anything—couldn’t talk,” said Black. “I’m sure he could hear us.”

Arnold then lost his pulse again, causing Black to deliver another shock from the defibrillator. Black then performed a series of chest compressions and attempted to deliver two breaths, but he was unable to open Arnold’s mouth.

“His mouth was cemented shut,” said Black. “Jamal was like, ‘Modified jaw thrust! Modified jaw thrust,’ a thing that you do especially with someone who has had a head injury—you don’t move the neck. As he’s trying to do that, I retilted the head and pulled the mouth open.”

“It’s so much different from a mannequin to a live person, whether the air really went in or not,” said Black. “It’s the first time I’ve ever done it on a person.”

As Ahmed was performing more chest compressions, Arnold again regained consciousness and again began gasping for air.

“The second time he came through, his hand came up,” said Black. “I grabbed his hand, and I just said, ‘Stay with us. You’re here, stay with us. You’re going to be fine.’ As I was doing that, the EMTs got there.”

The medical technicians placed an oxygen mask on Arnold and checked his vital signs. Arnold was taken to Middlesex Hospital and later transferred to Yale-New Haven Hospital.

“[The EMTs] just said, ‘Hey, you guys did a great job,’ said Black.”

Just your everyday heroes! Well done - Jamal, you will certainly get into med school.

Argus: Wrestling Coach and Ahmed '09 Revive Heart Attack Victim

NME on Wesleyan: a "Nest of Noise"

The latest periodical to cover Wesleyan as a hotbed of entertainment talent is British music magazine NME, which devoted a two-page spread this week to investigating our "nest of noise" which "has spawned artists such as MGMT, Amazing Baby and Santogold - and there's a lot more to follow."

It was clear that NME had a thing for this school and its products (for good reason), but damn, way to blow up Wesleyan's uniquely hip legacy!

From all that's visible from the linked page, there's a picturesque photo of North College, a map indicating the distance between Middletown and New York City, a quote from Ben Goldwasser of MGMT about Wesleyan's instrumental place in the chronology of his life, some pictures of Wes-graduated acts, and an inset about British schools which have supposedly reached a comparable level cool.

If anybody's got their hands on a copy of this week's issue and can send us a scan (is NME even distributed here?), it'd be much appreciated.

[edit, 10/24 11:30 am] The Wes homepage put up a full-page scan of the article, read the whole thing here.

It's pretty effusive about the Wesleyan students' creative potential, though some details are somewhat inaccurate - "The place is strewn with flyers advertising bands, films, plays and other artistic endeavours cooked up by bored students trying to entertain themselves in this largely rural part of the world." Um, right.

Media relations director David Pesci calls Wes a "crucible of creativity", where live music permeates the air in warmer months, and due credit is given to past professors of experimental music and ethnomusicology for building up the Music Department.

Santogold and members of MGMT recount their college experiences, and shout-outs are given to recent/current campus favorites Red Wire Black Wire, Bear Hands, and Bottle up and Go as examples of the wide range of musical styles formed here. Overall, not bad publicity at all.

NME: A Different Class
Full Article PDF

Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes

I know that lots of peeps at Wes recognize the genius that is Alan Moore's Watchmen, but you might not know that Zach Snyder (of 300 Fame) is directing a movie adaptation. (Alan Moore, of course, wants nothing to do with it)

Well, the production blog just posted pictures of a few of the characters here, and all I have to say is:

OMG!!!!!!!!!!1

Craig Mello at Wes on Thursday

You guys better not take my seat, but Nobel Prize in Medicine winner Craig Mello (of UMass Medical School) is going to be speaking this week at Wesleyan. His lecture is called "Return to the RNAi World: Rethinking Gene Expression, Evolution and Medicine".

Date: Thursday, February 28th
Time: 5:15
Venue: Shanklin 107

There are enzymes called slicer and dicer! Sweet! (also, here he is with a fly?)

More info on Dr. Mello

And now, your daily dose of awesome

(Shamelessly stolen from Newsarama)

Outing Club website

The Wesleyan Outing Club now has a website:

http://wesoutingclub.googlepages.com

It has the week's outings, tons of pictures and a box if you want to subscribe to our listserv. Check it out!