WITNESS-Cheating the grim reaper: a heart attack survived

Sam Nelson has been a commodities reporter for Reuters since 1993 and has been writing about the Chicago grain markets for 20 years. He has been an active runner for 15 years, a veteran of six marathons, over a dozen half-marathons and many shorter road races. In the following story he describes suffering a heart attack while on a training run. Sam has two daughters and two sons, and six granddaughters. He has kicked his heavy smoking habit.

By Sam Nelson

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The smile on her face was the first recollection I had of being alive, knowing something had happened and that whatever it was I had been at its centre.

She was one of the young runners I had been training with early that sunny Saturday morning. She always seemed able to laugh at anything, even death.

Humor may be an acquired trait of distance runners.

She told me I had suffered a heart attack. My heart had stopped, was shocked back into rhythm, and then stopped again in the hospital, and was shocked back into rhythm again.

Why me? A 63-year-old with six marathons under his belt? My running was great, but my heavy smoking habit wasn't. My heart attack took place on August 4, 2007 on a lakeside trail in Chicago. I was incredibly lucky to survive it.

I was finishing an easy six-mile run ahead of the Chicago Distance Classic, a half marathon the following weekend. I was having a good time, it was great to be alive and moving.

I remember a sudden rush of puzzling thoughts:

"I'm getting sick? This isn't right. What did I eat last night? What did I eat this morning? I'm getting sick on such a short easy run? During speed training, maybe. Sometimes in the last mile of a race if I push it. But now?"

I told my running buddies I needed to veer off the path and be sick. "We'll wait for you," I heard Tanya say.

Those were the last words I remember. I'm told I fell flat on my face, didn't move a muscle or make a sound.

I had always imagined a heart attack as a painful struggle: tight chest muscles, shortness of breath, numbness in an arm, textbook warning signs. This one was quick and painless.

HELP AT HAND

Great luck -- or some would say miracles -- kicked in.

Tanya had been reading about CPR the previous evening. She began blowing oxygen into my lungs and compressing my chest 10, 20, 30 times between breaths to try to keep my broken heart muscle and stifled brain cells on life support.