Gerry Bram got a second chance at life after he suffered a heart attack during the Syracuse University-East Carolina University football game in September. That second chance is due in large part to the medical and athletic training staffs of Syracuse and East Carolina, including the Orangemen's team physician, Irving Raphael, and head athletic trainer Tim Neal.

Midway through the fourth quarter of the game, Bram fell to the turf at the Carrier Dome. Three doctors, the medical staffs of both teams and the emergency medical technicians of the Carrier Dome rushed to his side, eventually shocking his heart six times with an external defibrillator and then rushing him to the hospital.

Bram thought he had indigestion, but it turned out to be so much more than that.

"The doctor told me, 'What you had was the widow-maker.' It was a bad artery, and it was blocked 90 percent. They brought me back to life. No question about it," Bram told the Syracuse Post-Standard.

Raphael issued this written statement after the incident:

"When we arrived on the field, back judge Gerry Bram was unconscious and barely breathing on his own. He stopped breathing and had an abnormal heart rate. He required an external defibrillator several times. He was given advanced cardiac life support."

When Bram was being treated, players from both teams knelt and prayed. After he was taken to the hospital, the game resumed after a brief warm-up period. For Bram, life will resume but perhaps differently than before.

Bram, who sells ice-cream toppings and pie fillings when he's not working as an official for high-school and college games, has officiated football, baseball, basketball and softball since he was 17 years old. He hasn't decided yet if he's hung up his whistle for good.

"My priorities have changed," he said. "My thing now is to take care of me, and my family, first. Football was always ahead of my family. But guess what? I'm gearing everything toward getting healthy for my wife and my two kids. And then if -- if -- football happens again, it happens."

Syracuse fans have been sending him get-well cards and flowers, and Bram is appreciative.

"I received cards and letters from people who don't even know me," he said. "I got flowers from people who didn't sign their names. They just wrote, 'A Syracuse Fan.' It was all amazing. Amazing. Basically, all I can say is: Thank you Syracuse. You saved my life."