When Frantzi Schaub died his mind took him to a seemingly-endless hallway in Blackhawk Intermediate School. He walked and walked. Then he woke up in a hospital bed.

Schaub, a Slippery Rock University junior who was born in Haiti and adopted by a family who raised him in Beaver Falls, survived thanks to the quick instincts of his classmates: Samantha Balaj, a junior exercise science major from Akron, Ohio, and Samantha Dyer, a sophomore dual major in biology and theater from Corry, Pa.

Schaub said the day he died was just like any other.

He started with a morning class and a workout at the gym before lunch, and had some time for a quick video game session before walking to a theater class.

“We were doing an acting exercise in class,” Schaub said. “That's all I remember.”

About 2:30 p.m., Dyer noticed Schaub lying on the floor. His classmates thought he was joking around, but she sensed something strange and approached her friend.

“I quickly realized he was not OK,” she said. “I caught the symptoms of a seizure pretty quickly.”

Dyer told Balaj to call 911.

“I was probably the biggest mess mentally. It was terrifying,” Dyer said. “I knew that Sam and I were probably the only two in the room that knew what to do, so I had to compose myself.”

Once 911 received the call, they sent word to paramedics. Balaj threw the phone to Dyer, who kept the officer on the phone appraised of the situation.

Balaj began checking Schaub for signs of life.

“I rolled him onto his back and checked his pulse at his carotid artery in his neck and in his wrist to double check,” Balaj said. “He had no pulse, and we realized he wasn't breathing.”

Balaj began chest compressions. She tried to give Schaub the breath of life, but Dyer noticed a strange rejection.

“He looked like he was trying to accept it the best he could, but his body wouldn't let him breathe,” Dyer said.

Balaj continued chest compressions until Officer Trevor Buckley arrived with an automated external defibrillator, or AED.

Dyer left the room shortly after Buckley arrived, while Balaj was asked to stay put. She said the scene was hard to watch.

“It was really hard to see Frantzi like that,” Dyer said.

Balaj said Buckley performed chest compressions until the AED charged.

“Clear.”

Then screaming.

Both Dyer and Balaj remember their friend's screams.

“He woke up and he was screaming,” Balaj said. “While they were carrying him out, he was continuing to scream.”

Dyer said Schaub's screams were chilling and sometimes still haunt her.

“It sounded like it was out of pain,” she said. “We don't know what the screaming was for. He doesn't remember.”

Schaub awoke in a bed at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh.

Then friends began to visit. Schaub said people considered him an anomaly and he felt out of place.

“People keep asking me if I remember anything from when I died,” he said.

Schaub said while recovery in the hospital he had a hard time finding substance to his existence.

“I was just unsure of the whole situation,” Schaub said. “I thought maybe I had died and this was a bad dream. For a good while, I was unsure if I was dead or alive.”

It took time for Schaub to cope, and Balaj and Dyer agreed that after he returned about a week later, things were a bit awkward. All three had suffered a unique trauma.

“I feel like we just haven't been able to move on from it,” Balaj said. “I'm really glad that he's OK. If he wasn't OK it would be a different story.”

Dyer brought Schaub a card that read, “Thanks for Not Dying,” but she too recognized the echoes of a traumatic experience.

“I have had countless people who come up to me and thank me and tell me they're proud of me. I understand, but it's not amazing. That's something that should have never had happened,” Dyer said. “It's hard for me to accept those compliments because it's hard for me to think about it.”

And yet, the trauma has not damaged their relationship. All three agree that the shared experience has made them closer.

Balaj said before the incident the three were friends, but most of their relationship centered around their shared class. Now they have much more in common.

“The three of us are really close now,” she said.

Dyer said she also feels closer to Schaub. She wants the best for him moving forward and is comforted by seeing him return to acting because she knows how passionate he is about it.

“I would like to see him excel in all of his dreams because this is something that's hard to get past,” Dyer said. “I think that he's pushed through it really well.”

As Schaub's recovery continued, what happened became more clear. He said doctors diagnosed him with a genetic condition, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, and installed an implantable cardioverter defibrillator, a defibrillator inside his body, to keep his heart beating.

“With that condition there's too much muscle tissue around my heart where the blood is pumped,” he said “It was getting too hard for my heart.”

Schaub has changed parts of his routine. But he wouldn't give up theater.

“I wanted to get back to class,” he said. “I didn't want that pity. I'm still me. I want to be a strong person. I didn't want anyone to look differently at me in that way.”

Schaub said he's doing well, although the defibrillator sometimes sends weird sensations through his body, which make him uneasy. He said doctors tell him he's a few months away from feeling normal.

He also struggles to fall asleep sometimes.

“I still don't let myself fall asleep by choice. I'm afraid now to fall asleep because I'm afraid I might not wake up,” Schaub said. “It's something I will get over in time.”

Schaub said he dreams of becoming a performer and playing on big stages.