University of Alabama QB, Houston native partners with foundation for cardiac arrest awareness

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — We’ve seen former Tompkins and current University of Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe make amazing plays on the field. Off the field, he is raising awareness for sudden cardiac arrest.

“It’s a sudden killer, it’s a silent killer, it happens in some cases without warning”, Ruqayya Gibson, Executive Director of Damani Gibson Foundation, said.

Milroe is the lead ambassador for the Damani Gibson Foundation. For every touchdown he throws or runs for, the foundation will donate an AED to a school or community to help save lives.

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“Studies have shown that out-of-hospital cardiac arrest has a 10% average survival rate, but if someone gets an AED connected to them within the first minute, their survival chances go up to 90%. And that’s huge,” Gibson said.

Ruqayya Gibson is the former head track coach at Cy-Springs. Her son, 17-year-old son Damani, died from sudden cardiac arrest in 2019.

“When I think back to anything out of the ordinary, I would say leading up to the sudden cardiac arrest, he did seem tired. That was his warning sign that he was tired, but he had enough energy to go to practice. You know, he went to practice. He had a great practice. He ran around off at practice that day and won the run-off”, Gibson said.

Gibson stepped away as an assistant track coach at the University of Alabama to pour all her time and energy into the foundation. “It just warms my heart to have such good people involved in his campaign who I get to see live out their dreams, even though I didn’t get to see Damani live out his dreams,” she said. “That’s why I call them the dream favors: because we’re trying to save other athletes, kids, youth, and other people, all in general, from losing their dreams to something that is a silent killer but is also preventable.”

Other Damani Gibson Foundation ambassadors include former Kinkaid running back Josh Williams, current LSU RB Shadrach Banks, Jr., and former North Shore WR and LB Shadrach Banks.

Why every minute matters when someone goes into sudden cardiac arrest

(It) can’t be stressed enough about awareness and prevention for SCA. ” It’s very important to get your regular checkups, but also ask for heart screenings,” Gibson said.

“The EKG is good across the board for anyone to get at least every year or every two years because the heart does change over time. So if you’ve gotten it once, don’t just say, okay, they’ve gotten their heart screened. I don’t have to do it anymore.”