NORMAL, Ill. (WMBD) — U-High graduate and pro basketball player Keita Bates-Diop returned to Normal for his annual basketball camp to help young players and to raise awareness of automated external defibrillators.
His brother, Kai, went into cardiac arrest at a high school basketball practice in 2017 and trainers revived him with an AED.
The camp donated an AED to the Girls Scouts of Central Illinois Saturday.
“The AED saved his life,” Keita said about his brother. “He was dead for a short amount of time, the AED brought him back to life. That’s why it is close to my family’s heart, no pun intended, since then. Now they are around a lot. AEDs are saving people’s lives. Not having them around we’ve lost people.”
Kai is now an athletic trainer at the University of Evansville. Keita’s family has donated 22 AED’s in central Illinois since 2017.
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