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 raised 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 as typical as any other. He started with a morning class and a workout at the gym before lunch. He 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.”

Between 2:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. Dyer noticed Schaub lying on the ground. “I quickly realized he was not OK,” she said. “I caught the symptoms of a seizure pretty quickly.”

Dyer said she told Balaj to call 911.

Balaj began chest compressions. She tried to give 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 AED already ready and in hand.

Clear.

Then screaming.

Both Dyer and Balaj remember their friend's screams.

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

Schaub was taken to Grove City Medical Center first. He remembers waking only briefly from his endless hallway. When he awoke again, he was in a bed at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh.

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.”

This is only the portion of their story. Read the full story in Monday's Butler Eagle.