21-Year-Old Takes Brother's Internship at Cardiac Device Company After Sibling Dies of Heart Attack (Exclusive)

• Brian Peck died of cardiac arrest in his dorm room at age 20 before he could begin his internship at the medical device company Medtronic
• His brother Colin, now 21, accepted a similar internship at Medtronic on his brother’s behalf and is working on devices that could have saved his brother’s life
• Colin also planned EKG tests at his high school, which helped detect previously undiagnosed heart problems in his classmates

Colin Peck recalls one of his last conversations with his older brother Brian.

Brian, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was home for Thanksgiving 2019.

“We stayed up until 5 in the morning just talking about the future of technology and what we wanted to do with our lives,” Colin, now 21, tells PEOPLE exclusively.

“The last day I saw him, I was thinking about going to his room and giving him one last hug before I went to school,” says the Orland Park, Ill., native.

Brian Peck.

Courtesy of Colin Peck

“I hesitated because I didn’t want to wake him up. I decided to go in and hug him before he left. And that’s the only thing that makes me so happy.”

Less than a month later, 20-year-old Brian died in his dorm room from an undiagnosed arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat) that caused sudden cardiac arrest.

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As a junior studying biomedical engineering and computer science, Brian planned to intern at the medical device company Medtronic.

Colin has now accepted a similar internship on his brother’s behalf.

“Colin is an inspiration to all of us at Medtronic,” Becky Kieffer, who manages the company’s early career program, tells PEOPLE. “We are truly honored to have him here this summer, following in Brian’s footsteps and helping others with heart problems.”

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Colin, a computer engineering and computer science student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says, “I felt myself leaning more and more toward applying my education to good causes. And now I get to work in this department that works with technology that would save Brian’s life.”

As he explains, “Any heart monitor would definitely detect an arrhythmia.”

Colin Peck works at Medtronic.

Courtesy of Colin Peck

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As Colin tells PEOPLE, “I want to turn my grief into change and impact and growth. The motivation and passion of knowing what happened to him makes me want to prevent it in any other situation.”

He’s already put this plan into action at his high school, organizing EKG tests for his classmates — which, as the Mayo Clinic explains, is a “rapid test” that can diagnose heart attacks and irregular heartbeats — that may already have saved lives.

“We had EKG devices that detected dangerous arrhythmias in people,” Colin tells PEOPLE. “And they could be treated for it.”

Colin and Brian Peck.

Courtesy of Colin Peck

“Young people believe they are invincible,” he tells PEOPLE. “Brian was 20 years old and living a perfectly healthy life, and it was just taken away from him.”

“I always think about a potential future where he would be my mentor by now,” she tells PEOPLE, sharing that while working at Medtronic, “Everything I do here, I see him.”

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Source: HIS Education