Basketball player who collapsed in practice is grateful to be alive

Tariq Massenburg’s life changed in an instant three weeks ago in south Charlotte.

Massenburg, practicing with the Charlotte ACES travel basketball team, was taking a break from a drill when he fell from a stage behind the basketball court at United Faith Christian School.

The horrible thud from Massenburg’s fall echoed throughout the gym. Charlotte ACES head coach Kevin Ligon raced to the 16-year-old, who was sprawled on the floor and wasn’t moving.

Then a violent seizure followed.

Three parents rushed from the bleachers. Olga Billups, wife of one of Ligon’s assistant coaches, joined Charles and Tracey Minlend, parents of one of Ligon’s players. Tracey Minlend rolled Massenburg on his side.

“We knew something was wrong,” Charles Minlend said. “My wife ran over and put him in the right position. You have to put him on his side. He was shaking. He was seizing.”

After Massenburg’s seizure ended, Tracey Minlend sat on the floor and held him in her arms. Everyone thought the worst was over. So when Tariq’s body went cold and limp, it startled her. Tracey Minlend checked for a pulse. There wasn’t one.

They immediately began CPR.

The Minlends weren’t supposed to be at practice that day. Their son, also named Charles, had a sore back and didn’t practice. But at the last minute, they decided to drive to United Faith to watch the other players.

Tracey Minlend is a registered nurse. Charles is a pharmacist. They’ve taken several CPR classes, but they had never performed the emergency procedure.

As the 6-foot-5 teenager lay motionless, Olga Billups blew two breaths into Tariq’s mouth as she held his nose. Tracey Minlend pressed on his chest 15 times. Then, they did it again. Charles Minlend pitched in when his wife’s hands got tired.

“He was in and out, fading in and out,” Charles Minlend said. “One time he comes back and you think, he shouldn’t be doing that anymore (losing a pulse). One thing I do remember, though, is how calm the coaching staff was.

“This would’ve marked those kids for life. Some of them wouldn’t have been strong enough to handle what might’ve happened and continue to play basketball. Our main focus was to do the best we could. The coaches did. Under those circumstances, people can start panicking and it turns worse.”

ACES assistant coach Gary Gadsden – who is the head coach of United Faith’s high school team – grabbed his cellphone to call 911 and then to call Massenburg’s parents. Ligon said it took seven minutes for the ambulance to arrive.

He said it felt like three days.

Medics spoke to Charles Minlend on the phone as he, his wife and Olga Billups frantically worked on Massenburg. When medics arrived, they also lost Massenburg’s pulse. They placed two electrical pads on his chest to shock his heart. He came back once, and then his pulse stopped again.

Medics shocked him a second time. Massenburg responded and this time seemed to stabilize.

Ligon gathered the other 18 players from his 17-and-under and 16-and-under teams and led them in prayer. They were standing about 25 yards from their teammate.

Ligon said everyone was in tears.

“If you could’ve heard the kids, on their hands and knees praying, saying ‘Fight it, Tariq, don’t leave us, Tariq,’ ” Ligon said.

A worried family

While parademics were preparing to rush Massenburg to Presbyterian Matthews hospital, his father, Alonzo, was rushing to meet his son at the emergency room. He was trying to get everything together and lock up the house to leave.

As he raced to his car, his wife, Fatimah, was sitting on the ground in the front yard crying.

He got her into the car and they beat the ambulance to the hospital. Alonzo Massenburg said he was always concerned for his son. He always wondered why Tariq would sometimes get so winded just running up and down the court a few times. He had once taken his son to a cardiologist back in his hometown of Petersburg, Va.

The doctor found nothing wrong.

“He works his (butt) off,” Alonzo Massenburg said. “A guy that thin you chase around trying to figure out why he won’t slow down.”

Recovery and the future

When Alonzo Massenburg met with doctors at Presbyterian, they told him his son had an enlarged heart. The reason his son collapsed at practice, they said, was because his heart didn’t have enough room to work properly, and basically started shaking, causing him to go into shock.

Tariq doesn’t remember much of what happened.

“I was playing,” he said, “and there was a water break. I was talking with (teammates) Evan (Umstead) and Mike (Featherstone) and everything went blank.”

When he woke up, he was in a hospital room with medical personnel working on him. They were taking an X-ray of his chest, and he remembers his chest hurt badly.

“It felt like a dream,” Tariq remembers. “My chest hurt, I guess from all the CPR. But I want to thank everybody. Those guys, my teammates, that’s my family right there. What they did for me, I’d do for them in a heartbeat. I may not be able to play basketball again, but I’m glad to be alive.”

The day after he collapsed, a cardiologist visited Tariq in his hospital room and told him his sports career was over. The parademics who helped save his life also came to see him. He was sitting up, playing his father in a game of NBA 2K15 on an XBox. Ligon said everyone was surprised he was eating and recovering so quickly.

The next day, Tariq had surgery to implant a device to help regulate his heartbeat. By the end of the week he was at home, resting comfortably. He’s up and active again now. And he’s already looking to his future. Tariq wants to coach, and he plans to support his teammates, from the bench for the rest of the summer.

Tariq’s family is planning a special birthday party for him in August. The invitation they are texting to friends reads, “Celebration of Life.”

“You don’t realize how grateful I am for these people from the ACES,” Alonzo Massenburg said. “I’m here, straight out of Virginia. I’ve got no family here, just my wife and my son. I don’t know anybody and these people take me into their lives and make me and my family feel at home. And every time a parent comes and explains to me what happened to my child, it’s overwhelming, to hear the stories of how many people helped.”

Ligon said this is a story he’ll never forget.

“I’ve been coaching for 25 years,” he said. “I’ve never had a kid collapse or anything, but I was proud of the way we all handled it. We had not trained for it or spoke about it but everyone did everything they could to make sure that kid was safe.”

This story was originally published June 29, 2015 at 8:16 PM with the headline "Basketball player who collapsed in practice is grateful to be alive."