ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. – Oakland University men's basketball coach Greg Kampe is "lucky to be alive" after a serious medical emergency last month.
"It was pretty scary," Kampe said.
Kampe had kidney stones, but put off surgery to go on a recruiting trip three and a half weeks ago in Georgia. One of his assistants told him he looked yellow, and he cut the trip short and went home.
It turns out Kampe had gotten an infection, and when he got home, he had severe temperature problems.
"I got in my hot tub to warm up, thinking I just got sick and I need to warm up," Kampe said. "I'm in the 104-degree water, shaking. That's when I went to the hospital, and if I hadn't, I wouldn't have lived."
His wife took him to the hospital, where he was found to have a 106-degree temperature. He closed his eyes and woke up to the medical staff hosing him off and icing him down.
"I was 106 temperature," Kampe said. "(My temperature was) 106.7, and my heart rate was 140 laying there. That's full exercise. That's when I realized I was in real trouble."
Kampe said he thinks every doctor in the hospital was in his room.
"They took my clothes off, put me in a chair and hosed me with ice water to get my temperature from 106 to 102," Kampe said.
It turns out Kampe's kidney stones had become infected, and sepsis had set in. He was in the ICU for five days before having the surgery to remove the six kidney stones.
The near-death experience has Kampe cherishing life and family a little bit more, but he hasn't lost the classic Kampe humor in telling the story.
"I have to change my lifestyle, and I think if you have stock in 7-Eleven, you might want to get rid of it, because they're going to lose one of their best customers," Kampe said.
Kampe is "lucky to be alive," according to an Oakland athletics spokesperson. He lost 25 pounds and said he's feeling about 80 percent back to his normal self.
Kampe is in his 34th year at Oakland.