‘Michigan saved my life’:Michigan-Ohio…..
‘Michigan saved my life’: Ohio photographer survives heart attack after Michigan-Ohio State game

MICHAEL ARBOR, MI On November 25, tens of thousands of spectators flocked to Michigan Stadium to watch the Wolverines defeat Ohio State.
Cleveland-based freelance photographer Aaron Josefczyk filed his pictures until the throng dissipated, giving him a way out of the jam. He went into the stadium tunnel to get a lens thirty minutes later.
After taking the picture, he felt an ache in the center of his chest. Gasping for air and feeling overheated, he ascended the tunnel hill to notify two police officers of his predicament.
Soon after, paramedics determined Josefczyk was experiencing a heart attack. Three weeks later, he’s getting better in his Ohio home, courtesy of Michigan Medicine and the medical personnel at the stadium.
“I would not have wanted to be anywhere else,” Josefczyk said, looking back on his cardiological ordeal. “Michigan saved my life.”
The 54-year-old was raised in a Buckeye home and earned a degree in photography from Ohio State. He’s fulfilling his dream of earning a living by covering sports, from Cleveland’s professional clubs to Ohio State football home games.
“That would be the best way to do things if I could do this, get paid, and have a great seat at a game,” he remarked.
At the beginning, Josefczyk didn’t think the paramedics when they said he was having a heart attack.
He recalled telling the man that the pressure on his chest would go away if he could burp.
To further compound his surprise, he added, Josefczyk is in good physical condition. However, according to Dr. Mark Lowell, that’s not always a reliable indicator,medical director at Michigan Stadium, whose team responded to Josefczyk.
“The only thing that contributes to your risk factors for coronary disease are things you can’t see, like cholesterol levels, family history, genetic predisposition to things like that,” Lowell said. “It can essentially happen anybody.”
Josefczyk was taken to the stadium’s medical station, which serves the more than 100,000 fans who attend games in The Big House on fall Saturdays. The medical station conducted an EKG and coordinated transportation and care to the University of Michigan Health Frankel Cardiovascular Center.
Lowell’s team alerted the hospital that Josefczyk would need catheterization to open blood flow to the heart. Timely transportation limits the amount of muscle degradation in the heart, Lowell said, and ambulance drivers had to weave through gameday congestion to ensure that timely care.
“Time is muscle,” Lowell said.
Josefczyk, who was out during his ambulance ride, awoke to find his care team at the hospital. One of his physicians was Dr. Michelle Feeney, an emergency medicine resident and, coincidentally, a 2020 Ohio State graduate.
When physicians saw his Buckeye shirt underneath his work attire, Feeney showed Josefczyk her “Block O” pin, he said.
“I had an Ohio State shirt on, and I was laying there and I’m like, ‘God, I’m gonna die here with this shirt on,’” he said. “But she leaned down and said, ‘I got your back.’”
Cardiologists found there was a 90% blockage in Josefczyk’s right coronary artery, he said. Under the care of cardiologists Drs. Michael Grossman and Rayan Rachwan, a catheter was threaded from his wrist to the artery to clear the blockage and place two stents to keep the vessel open.
“The immediate recognition of a medical emergency at The Big House and rapid transport to the emergency department allowed us to expedite care and get the blocked vessel open quickly,” Grossman said.
Josefczyk said he felt calm throughout the process due to the decisiveness and confidence of his whole care team, from the cops he first alerted to Lowell’s emergency responders to Grossman’s cardiologists.
“They knew exactly what was wrong with me and what they had to do and how quickly they had to do it,” Josefczyk said.
Four days later, Josefczyk left the hospital to return home to Ohio. He’s focused on his nutrition the last few weeks, such as cutting out the fast food he would eat while driving back from a photo assignment.
On social media and via the phone, he also experiences the love of hundreds of family members and friends. According to him, some are even taking his example and getting healthier themselves.
“Observing the effect this has on people has been cool,” he remarked.
He’s been asked by some if this event has affected his thoughts on Michigan football. As a photographer, his job is to remove himself from the fan side of sports, so he brushes off the inquiry.
But Joseczyk will always have gratitude for the Michigan Medicine team.
“They got me back home, knew what to do, and followed all their protocol,” he remarked.