PITTSBURGH — Pitt men’s basketball associate head coach Milan Brown listens to Marvin Sapp’s song “Thank You For It All” once a day, every day since May 9, 2022.
“Like he says - the good bad, the ugly and the small. I’m grateful for it all,” said Brown.
May 9 was just another day for Brown — until it wasn’t.
“To tell you the truth, I have no memory of anything,” said Brown.
He was pacing the concourse of the Peterson Events Center that morning like he usually does while on the phone recruiting, when suddenly, he went into cardiac arrest, unknowingly from a heart arrhythmia, collapsing to the ground.
“I got out of the stairwell, made the immediate right and started walking towards my meeting,” said Associate Athletic Director of External Initiatives and Special Projects Amy Anderson.
“And that’s where I saw that Milan was laying on the ground. I ran over to him, asking ‘Milan, are you okay?’ He didn’t respond. I immediately called 911.
One of the workers setting up for a concert at the Pete later that night ran up to the scene and began CPR. Amy immediately sprinted down the hall, into the coaches’ offices for more help.
“She’s running up going he’s on the ground, something’s happened quickly, someone’s got to come,” said former Pitt Women’s Basketball Assistant Coach Terri Mitchell.
“So I just took off running. Now at this point, he was with us, but not completely. He was breathing very heavy.”
Suddenly, things went south.
“His body went completely limp and….gone.” said Mitchell. “You could just see everything. Breath, everything. He’s just laying there. As Amy is saying to me ‘AED,’ I already knew and I jumped up.”
Terri sprinted to her right, where the AED was hanging on the wall, and within seconds, they delivered a shock to Coach Brown’s heart.
“And there he came back,” said Mitchell. “I’ve never witnessed that before in my life. But it was a glorious thing to see someone who was completely limp and had nothing to actually come back.”
Coach Brown was rushed to UPMC Presbyterian. Meanwhile, Amy and Coach Terri waited for any piece of good news. Then came the phone call. Coach Brown was going to be alright.
“It was one of that pump-your-fists-in-the-air kind of moments,” said Anderson. “It was just, you know, your prayers were answered.”
“The doctors told me it was a drill,” said Coach Brown. “If they had to set up a drill of how this should work, and it worked perfectly for myself.”
Yet it was almost serendipitous how everything came together the way it did that May morning.
“He had a lot of angels around him that day,” said Anderson.
Amy had multiple meetings that day run behind.
“She was running a few minutes late behind in the athletic meeting that we’re having,” said Coach Brown. “So if that doesn’t happen, I’m not sitting here today.”
Coach Terri wasn’t exactly sure where the AED was located in the building.
“I didn’t know to go right or left,” said Mitchell. “This is where I feel God’s hand was on my life to say go right, I sprinted right…..there it was on the wall.”
Doctors told Mitchell that the decision was crucial.
“His words to me is this was one minute later, he’s not with us,” said Mitchell.
“All of those events leading up to save me that day were obviously critical,” said Brown. “But it was so amazing how many individual people had to play their part in order to save my life. And I’m just thankful every day of my life for that.”
Three weeks after Brown had surgery to put an ICD, a device that helps regulate his heartbeat in his chest, the three shared an emotional reunion.
“It’s hard,” said Brown. “I will never be able to thank them enough. They were able to make sure that I could be a husband and a father, which is my most important job, and the job I love doing the most.”
“You see his wife standing next to him and you’re like, he’s a husband, and he’s a father,” said Anderson. “That’s when it really hits you is, you know, I know him as the coach. But there were so many more people involved.
Brought together by what seems like fateful happenstance, the trip now has a bond they’ll share forever.
“He sent me an email on the Fourth of July, this year and said, ‘Hey, I just want you to know, I’m sitting on my patio, having a barbecue with my kids and my wife. And thank you for being there,’” said Anderson.
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