A tennis player from Rochester, Indiana, who was 18 years old, suffered a cardiac arrest right after he finished his warm-up laps.

Drew Strasser had just finished his warm-up in the gym when he suddenly collapsed last August.

Jake, a friend and teammate, rushed to his aid and began CPR as coach Jesse Atkinson went to grab an automated external defibrillator (AED) to shock his heart while someone called 911. Their prompt response most likely prevented the teen’s death.

“His friend, his 18-year-old teammate who works as a lifeguard — luckily he handled the situation right,” Laneia Strasser, Drew’s mother, told TODAY. “Nobody knows how you’re going to react to a situation like that, and he did what he needed to do.”

After an hour’s drive in an ambulance, doctors were able to stabilize his condition.

“We were just shocked. It didn’t seem real. He’s never had any passing-out moments before,” Laneia Strasser said. “He’s never had any signs of heart issues. It just completely came out of the blue.”

An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) was recommended to be placed in the young athlete’s chest because the doctors were unable to determine the underlying cause of the sudden cardiac arrest the athlete experienced.

Drew Strasser’s sudden cardiac arrest has left his doctors baffled.

“If there is a reversible cause or something that we can treat, we do not need the ICD,” Kean said. “His diagnosis is what’s referred to as idiopathic ventricular fibrillation, which basically means we don’t have another diagnosis.”

TODAY reported:

“They told us, ‘No he didn’t have a heart attack. It was that he was in sudden cardiac arrest,” Laneia Strasser said. “It was very traumatic. Scary, scary, scary morning.”

(“Sudden cardiac arrest” is defined as the “abrupt lost of heart function, breathing and consciousness” whereas a heart attack is when “blood flow to a part of the heart is blocked,” according to Mayo Clinic. A heart attack may trigger sudden cardiac arrest.)

His parents couldn’t believe what was happening. Drew Strasser always participated in sports and never had any health problems. Just three weeks earlier, he’d visited his doctor for a physical, and nothing abnormal with his heart was detected.

After doctors at the nearby hospital stabilized the teen, he was transferred to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, where doctors tried to figure out why his heart wasn’t working properly. Seeing him in the cardiac intensive care unit on a ventilator with no explanation for he went into cardiac arrest was already tough for Drew Strasser’s parents. But then, he became seriously ill.

“By Sunday, he had developed a lung infection, and he took a turn for the worse,” Laneia Strasser said. “His blood pressure kept dropping really low. They (gave) him really strong antibiotics.”

After a few days, he was able. to remember why he was in the hospital. But he still felt surprised by his situation.

“I didn’t believe what was going on because I hadn’t thought anything was wrong before, and I’ve never had anything like this happen at all,” Drew Strasser told TODAY. “It’s scary and confusing.”

The post Doctors are Baffled After 18-Year-Old Athlete Suffers Cardiac Arrest During Tennis Practice appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Wawa announced it is closing several stores overnight in suburban Philadelphia because of skyrocketing crime in the city.

The gas station and convenience store chain plans to close overnight at a total of nine stores in Northeast Philadelphia and the Bucks County suburbs, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The stores will be closed from midnight to 5 a.m. until further notice. The decision to close the stores comes after two stores were robbed earlier this week, and as Wawa reportedly mulls pulling out of Philadelphia altogether because of the crime problem.

A company spokesperson would not list all the stores that would be affected, due to ongoing investigations by law enforcement. “What we can say is at times we may temporarily close or limit hours due to external challenges or recommendations by local authorities for the safety and security of our associates and customers,” the spokesperson told the Inquirer.

Two of the stores that will begin shutting their doors are in Northeast Philadelphia. The others are all located in the Bucks County suburbs: two of them are in Bensalem, which directly borders the city; four are located in the town of Feasterville-Trevose, and one is located in nearby Holland.

The closures come after two of the stores were robbed earlier this week. On Monday, the Wawa on the corner of Street Road and Bustleton in Feasterville-Trevose was robbed by an armed man at around 2 a.m. Then on Tuesday morning at around 3 a.m., the Holland location was robbed. Local police believe the same suspect is responsible for both robberies.

Wawa has a presence on much of the East Coast, with locations in seven states, but it is headquartered in Pennsylvania, and is a cultural cornerstone in the Philadelphia area. But the chain is reportedly considering moving out of the area altogether as crime continues to soar in the city. Last month, a mob of more than 100 teenagers ransacked a store in Northeast Philadelphia; a video of the incident went viral, showing the teens milling through the store and taking merchandise while a customer asks the staff, “Are y’all gonna make any sandwiches? Or are y’all just going to keep recording?”

That incident, combined with an uptick in crime across the city, forced the chain to close two of its stores in Center City, the central neighborhood and business district of Philadelphia. “Despite reducing hours and investing in additional operational measures, continued safety and security challenges and business factors have made it increasingly difficult to remain open in these two locations,” Wawa spokeswoman Lori Bruce told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In addition to closing down stores at night and permanently shuttering others, Philadelphia City Councilmember Mike Driscoll said last week that the chain is considering pulling out of the city altogether because of crime.

“They’ve had to invest in security … security doesn’t add anything to your bottom line, it takes away from your bottom line,” Driscoll said. “But without it, then you’re in deep trouble. So they are spending money, they’re losing money. The scariest part to me is one of the senior officials said, ‘We’re seriously considering moving out of the city of Philadelphia in our strategic planning, at least not to expand.’”