Lope heads into home debut thriving 1 year after surgery
By: Paul Coro
As he prepared last month for the start of the Grand Canyon men's volleyball team's two-a-day practices, Camden Gianni could not help but think about the prior year's first day, when he went into cardiac arrest.
It was the pang of nerves this time, making him question, "Am I ready for this?"
That gut feeling returned last week as Gianni prepared to play his first collegiate match in Hawaii, where his mother, Jamie, could read the anxiety in his wide eyes and perspiring face.
"You need to change your face," GCU head coach Matt Werle told him.
"I'm just trying to stay calm," Gianni said.
But as Gianni marks his one-year anniversary since open-heart surgery on Tuesday, he is feeling everything but trouble with the heart that failed during that Dec. 28, 2018, practice. Lopes athletic trainer Deborah Carter and special assistant to the head coach Dennis Flowers revived Gianni on the Antelope Gymnasium floor with four rounds of cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the shock of the gym's automated external defibrillator.
   Gianni and his siblings, Caelan
   and Chase, after heart surgery
Gianni is more than back to make his GCU home debut on the floor where he nearly died. He is thriving as the Lopes' starting outside hitter heading into the 6 p.m. Friday match against Park at Antelope Gymnasium.
"It's weird to think it was a year ago," Gianni said. "My whole life has changed in the past year. There are a lot of things in my life that I didn't expect, and I'm so thankful for everyone. I definitely don't take things for granted. There are more things to worry about than the stuff we usually worry about. Friends and family are a lot more important than we realize.
"I'm just so thankful for everyone. My roommates, coaches, team, friends have circled around me to make sure I feel love and supported through this last year."
Gianni went through an arduous year following his cardiac arrest, which began with seizures. He initially was told he would not play volleyball again before his collegiate career had even begun, but a birth defect, an anomalous coronary artery, was identified and repaired with a bypass graft on Jan. 14, 2019.
During his recovery, Gianni lost 25 pounds but gained that back and strengthened with another 10 pounds to put him at 6 feet 5, 205 pounds. He passed stress tests and was cleared to resume volleyball activity, but apprehension remained.
"I still worry," said his mother, Jamie, a preschool teacher from Carlsbad, Calif., who still is momentarily anxious when a Phoenix area code pops on her phone. "There are times he is diving on the ground or when the ball hits him in a chest that it makes me gasp for air a little bit for him. He's not feeling it, but I can feel it."
Gianni received some peace of mind when his cardiologist inserted a chip to monitor his heart on Dec. 26, moving him to tears on the ride home. Three days before the season started, the report came back that Gianni's heart had been functioning normally.
"When someone tears their ACL and comes back, they worry about their knee but nobody really worries about their life," said Gianni, whose heart monitor creates a bump of chest skin. "During the matches in Hawaii, there were times I'd definitely think, 'I hope something doesn't happen to me.' But there's never a time when I'm super unsure something is going to happen. It's just that constant nagging in the back of my brain to hope that I'm safe even though all the doctors have told me I'm OK."
Once he passed the initial jitters of a Division I debut coinciding with his first competition following heart surgery, Gianni settled into the hard-hitting offensive threat he can be to make the All-Rainbow Warrior Classic Team. Through his first three career matches, the redshirt freshman ranks 10th in the nation for attacks per set (6) and 18th for kills per set (3.5).
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 Gianni and his mother, Jamie
"He is bigger and stronger and had a year of maturity that was forced upon him because he had to go through all of that," Werle said.
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When practices began almost a year to the date of his cardiac arrest, there were dark jokes by him and his teammates. He intentionally does it for his team to feel comfortable playing and acting normally around him.
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After he was away from GCU for the spring semester, his teammates made his reintroduction better to the point he cried when alone with his teammates/roommates during the first week of school.
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"It's great to have him back happy and smiling," said sophomore Christian Janke, his roommate and fellow outside hitter. "To think where we were a year ago is unheard of. He had some hesitation at first, but it's crazy to see where he's come and his mentality after not knowing if he could have this anymore. He's not taking it for granted."
Any discomfort in the gym is quickly soothed by seeing the people who saved his life, Storm and Flowers, there with him every day. Storm wears a necklace pendant that Gianni gave her with the inscriptions "With love" and "+1 Gianni."
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His sister, Caelan, is a freshman at GCU and traveled with several relatives to watch his debut in Hawaii last week. She wore the practice jersey that her brother was wearing when his heart stopped.
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"Of all the places that recruited him, God had Camden exactly where he was supposed to be when this happened," his mother said. "You think about your kids and you worry about them getting in a car accident or being with people who are drinking. You never think about him being at a practice and getting that phone call. It put me in a humble position that I have to give my kid over to God.
"His love for volleyball was already through the roof, but he knows he has a second chance so he lives and breathes it more now."
 Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.
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