The Michigan-Ohio State game may have taken place last month, but a Cleveland photographer is celebrating a victory of his own as a result of the game.
Aaron Josefczyk, a national sports photographer, was taking pictures of the game last month.
After the Buckeyes lost to the Wolverines, Josefczyk headed back to the media room at the stadium when he started feeling faint.
“I couldn’t breathe deeply. I grabbed my lens and struggled to get up the tunnel. Eventually I got so hot that I got rid of some clothes and told security I was going to get some fresh air outside," Josefczyk said.
Josefczyk caught the eye of an usher who alerted paramedics. They transported him on a golf cart ambulance to the medical station and then quickly to the University of Michigan Health.
"I can see the guy looking at me and he said, 'Sir, you’re having a heart attack,'” Josefczyk recalled.
"I watched the game and we saw all the students go onto the field and that’s when my pager went off," interventional cardiologist Dr. Michael Grossman recalled.
"When you look at that picture, man that could’ve been the last one," he reminisced.
In minutes after weaving through game day traffic, this 54-year-old wearing his OSU shirt was rushed through a hallway filled with blue and gold as doctors worked to open up the clogged artery.
"As soon as the blockage starts, then the heart muscle that's fed by the artery starts to die," emergency physician Dr. Mark Lowell detailed. "And the more dying heart muscle you have, the chances of you having a worse outcome are increased."
After four days, Josefczyk was released from the hospital.
“I still get a little paranoid any time I feel something in my chest, but it’s probably a good thing,” he said.
Josefczyk hopes to return to Ann Arbor in two years to photograph “The Game” once again — with a newfound appreciation for the rival team.
“As much as we all give that team up North a lot of hate, their group of medical professionals saved my life,” he said.
Three weeks later, Aaron Josefczyk is back home in Ohio, recovering and eagerly awaiting his return to the sidelines.
News 5 met up with Josefczyk Wednesday, where he spoke with Dr. Michelle Feeney, the emergency medicine resident who helped treat him. It was the first time they had spoken face-to-face since "The Game."
"Amongst all the chaos of all those people in there, everybody was doing their thing," he said. "You guys were truly amazing and I’ve told every person I can how incredible you guys were from everything you did that day to get me back home. I appreciate you guys so much."
"This is what we do and makes it so rewarding," Feeney replied.
It's also worth pointing out that Feeney, who graduated from OSU’s medical school in 2020, wore a “block O” pin on her work lanyard the day Josefczyk became her patient. With Josefczyk wearing an OSU shirt that day, there was an instant bonding moment.
“I think I got a couple comments about my shirt there, and [Dr. Feeney] leaned over to me and said, ‘I got your back,’ which was the greatest thing,” Josefczyk said.
