Lifesaving WVU students honored for quick action on campus

Mountaineers keep each other safe.

That’s a cultural cornerstone at West Virginia University, and one that passed two unexpected pressure tests in October 2026, when a pair of unrelated medical incidents required students to spring into action.

According to WVU Dean of Students Carrie Showalter, “These were life-or-death situations, and these students are heroes. Their actions show the importance of knowing CPR, of being trained and reacting, and how that can make a difference in someone’s life.”

On November 4, 2026, the WVU Student Government Association honored all four students — Hannah Marks, Finian McKay, Jordan Sexstone and Julie Weisz — for stepping up to save a life.

October 7 — Reynolds Hall

Jordan Sexstone usually goes to the Downtown Fitness Center at Reynolds Hall to work out a couple days a week.

A master’s student in forensic science from Princeton, Indiana, and a veteran summer camp counselor, Sexstone has years of training in first aid, CPR and use of an automated external defibrillator.

Training she’d never had to use in a real emergency until October 7, 2026.

Early that morning, Julie Weisz, a cybersecurity major from Severna Park, Maryland, and Finian McKay, a sport management major from Annapolis, Maryland, were staffing the gym. Logan Holbrook, an electrical engineering major from Fort Thomas, Kentucky, was running on the treadmill while Sexstone was a short distance away, waiting for her workout buddy to arrive.

Suddenly, Weisz remembered, she heard a yell: “Call 911.”

She ran over to discover Holbrook unresponsive on the floor.

McKay immediately contacted emergency services, and while Weisz told herself, “Keep calm,” Sexstone appeared and announced that she was CPR certified.

“OK, perfect,” Weisz thought. “You’re doing this with me.”

Weisz had received her Red Cross certification at the age of 13 and had been certified in CPR and AED use when she started her supervisory role at the fitness center. She and Sexstone both tried feeling for a pulse.

It was hard to find, but it was there.

And then it wasn’t.

So Sexstone began giving rescue breaths while Weisz started CPR. Along with McKay, they anxiously awaited EMS.

All three frankly admitted to feeling the stress.

“I was shaking,” Sexstone said.

Weisz agreed, “It was hard to stay calm. We were very thankful that EMS got there so quickly. But we communicated during the entire thing. I was frantic in my head, but with us communicating with each other, it felt like no one was freaking out.”

Holbrook was rushed to WVU Ruby Memorial Hospital, where he was discovered to have suffered a cardiac arrhythmia. He received care in the ICU while doctors ensured his brain was not affected by the minutes without oxygen.

But almost within the week, Holbrook was back on his feet — and back in class.

The president of WVU Mountaineer Catholic, Holbrook received an upswelling of online prayers and good wishes from his community and many strangers.

He said, “There’s been a lot of prayers and a lot of support. I’m very indebted to St. John University Parish in Morgantown. When I was not in the best spot they were praying for me and supporting me both physically and spiritually. I’ve been very blessed in that aspect, and I’m very thankful Julie and Jordan were there. I’m very grateful that there were people who were able to help me when I couldn’t help myself.”

While Holbrook’s recovery has been speedy, it’s a work in progress, and he appreciates the grace his teachers have given him in catching up on work. While he works to get stronger, he does his best to take a humorous approach to the reality of having a chronic condition.

“I have to get my battery changed once a year now,” he said. “Everybody calls me Tony Stark.”

But Holbrook doesn’t shy away from how serious the experience was.

“If nobody had known how to help me, the situation could have been fatal,” he said. “I experienced firsthand the importance of knowing CPR, so I’m looking to get trained again, and a lot of my friends are going to get trained.”

For rescuer McKay, the hardest part had been wondering whether Holbrook would be all right. Now that he knows Holbrook’s recovery is well underway, McKay has gained new appreciation for life’s unpredictability.

“Anything can happen,” he said. “My primary takeaway is to always be prepared.”

October 10 — Milan Puskar Stadium

WVU undergrad Hannah Marks has been tailgating in the light blue lot of Milan Puskar Stadium “for my entire life, since I can’t even remember,” she said.

But the October 10, 2026, Coal Rush game against the Arizona Wildcats is one she’ll never forget.

A sociology major who has always called Morgantown home, Marks was standing a short distance away from her family, listening to a voicemail from a friend, when she heard breaking glass and saw a pair of eyeglasses fly across the parking lot.

Not far from Marks’ tailgate, a fellow Mountaineer supporter was on the ground, and beside him was a small group of responders.

“I saw them rip his shirt open and we heard, ‘Does anybody know CPR?’ I was like, ‘Uh-oh.’ The first thought in my head was that I didn’t know these people. I felt like people usually tailgate with their family or friends, and nobody should have to do CPR on a family member or one of their close friends. That could be traumatic. So I went over.”

Already on the ground administering CPR was a woman Marks would later discover to be Dr. Carmen Burrell, an associate professor of emergency medicine in the WVU Health Sciences Center and the urgent care medical director for WVU Student Health Services.

Marks told Burrell she was certified in CPR and asked if Burrell needed to be relieved.

“I was nervous,” Marks admitted. “But she said, ‘Yes, I’m getting tired,’ so I was like, ‘OK, I guess I’m in it now.’ So I went through the textbook routine: Check for breaths, check for pulse. I started compressions — 30 compressions, 2 breaths. I’ve been a lifeguard for six years, every summer since high school, so I’ve been recertified in CPR every year. It’s drilled in my brain. I was singing ‘Stayin’ Alive’ in my head to keep the pace.”

After what Marks estimates was five or six rounds of compressions and breaths, the man began coming to, and EMS arrived shortly after.

Burrell remembers that Marks was so cool and collected when she approached to offer her help that Burrell thought “it must be a healthcare student. She was doing everything right. Even afterward — because it’s later when it calms down that the stress really hits you — she was calm and professional.”

After Marks stepped aside to let the EMS responders work, she was a little “shook up, so I took a lap,” she said.

Then she returned to her own tailgate, where her family had no idea what she had just done.

After the ambulance departed, Marks debriefed with Burrell, telling her how grateful she was to have known CPR.

“It was almost muscle memory once I started doing it,” Marks said. “Later that day, I called the person that I always do my CPR certification class through, and I told her, ‘Everything you taught me paid off.’

“It was encouraging to know that I can step up in a situation like that,” she added. “People were asking me which hospital I worked at and I was like, ‘Oh no, I’m in college. I’m actually just a waitress.’ Everyone should be CPR certified, in my opinion.”

Story by Micaela Morrissette. Reporting by Jonathan Cribbs and Katie Short.