CHICAGO — Te’Jaan Ali was playing basketball in a school gym on the South Side of Chicago when he started feeling hot. The heat in the gym — which didn’t have air conditioning — was likely just as bad as the sweltering temperatures outside, which reached 90 degrees on July 18, 2020.
Ali, 19, stood in front of a fan and collapsed. Less than two hours later, he died in a hospital emergency room of a heart condition.
On Monday, football fans across the country watched in shock as a similar scene played out during an NFL game: Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals when he went into cardiac arrest after colliding with another player. Hamlin, 24, was in critical condition after receiving lifesaving measures on the field and being transported to a Cincinnati hospital.
