Former NevadaPrep.com owner Chuck Hildebrand has regained consciousness in a Milwaukee hospital, according to a source in that city.
Hildebrand's childhood friend, Paul Balbis, told the Lahontan Valley News that Hildebrand came out of the coma on Wednesday morning.
Balbis said that Hildebrand was touring an animal park in Milwaukee on Monday morning when he collapsed from an apparent heart attack. Passerbys began CPR and called 911. Paramedics arrived within minutes and used electroshock to re-establish his heartbeat. Hildebrand was taken unconscious to Columbia-St. Mary's Ozaukee hospital, where he was put into a hypothermia-induced coma to allow his body to heal. Doctors warmed him up on Wednesday morning, whereupon he regained consciousness.
Hildebrand apparently was coherent and knew where he was, according to Balbis.
Hildebrand operated NevadaPrep.com, a Web site that focused on high school sports in Northern Nevada, from 1999 to 2007. He operated the site out of Carson City for three years and Winnemucca for five years. Prior to establishing the Web site, Hildebrand published a printed version, Nevada Prep, for one year. Nevada Prep was distributed weekly to high schools throughout Northern and Central Nevada.
Hildebrand sold the Web site in 2007 and returned to his hometown, Campbell, Calif., to focus on his writing career. He's authored three books.
Balbis said that, according to his doctors and nurses, Hildebrand would not have lived had it not been for the rescue efforts of the passerbys and emergency medical personnel.