Do What You Can, With What You Have, Where You Are

By Joe George

In the spring of 2013, I decided to participate in the Napa Valley Marathon. I was a dedicated runner since 2008, having participated in three half-marathons and a relay marathon.

It takes a serious amount of practice to run a marathon, so I joined up with a local club called the Napa Valley Vine Runners. We would practice alone during the week, running upwards of 10 miles every other day and then go for a practice run together on Saturday mornings. We normally ran a several mile circuit in a hilly, rural area east of town, remote from the bustle of city traffic.

I dimly remember getting ready for the run the previous Friday night, getting my shorts, shoes, Garamin (run tracking device), etc. staged and ready to go first thing on Saturday morning, April 6th, 2013. The next thing I truly remember was waking up in the ICU of the local hospital on the following Tuesday morning. Our daughter came into the room, & I remember asking her what happened. She said, “Well, Dad, you had a heart attack.” I was astonished. 

Up until then, I was in outstanding health. Along with running, I participated in a “healthy heart” program at my company’s Health Quest facility. Physical tests conducted as part of that program indicated that at age 54, I had the aerobic capacity of someone twenty years my junior. My blood chemistry was excellent and my blood pressure was low. No one could have guessed I would become the victim of a cardiac arrest.

My running partners later told me that I had started out well with them, and then fell further and further behind. At one point near the intersection of two country roads, they looked back and saw me stop, fall to my knees, and then collapse forward onto the ground. They rushed back to me to render aid.

One of them, Mark, had just completed a six-week body sculpting program at a local gym and had recently renewed his CPR certification. The other, Juan Carlos, had decided at the last moment to bring his new iPhone with him to use for tracking his run times. Mark immediately started CPR while Juan Carlos called 911. I later heard the tape from that 911 call and the heroic efforts of my friends and the 911 dispatcher to try and save my life.

It was later determined that the probable cause of my cardiac arrest was dehydration and low electrolyte levels stemming from my not eating or drinking before a run, due to a dislike of stuff sloshing around my stomach while running. This led to dangerously low levels of potassium, which is important for regulating your heart rate. My heart started to race over 200 beats per minute. In that situation, blood tends to only move rapidly between the chambers of the heart, leading to a loss of blood to the brain and therefore a loss of brain function.

Efforts to revive me at the scene and during the ambulance ride were unsuccessful, and it wasn’t until after my arrival at the hospital twenty-two minutes later that my heart was restarted.

It would be worthwhile to point out that according to 2019 data from the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation, survival to hospital discharge after EMS-treated cardiac arrest was 10.4% and survival with good functional status was 8.4% of those in my situation. The outlook was not good.

But the Lord had other ideas.

After she learned of my situation, my wife Keri immediately contacted our daughter Anna and son-in-law Nick. Nick immediately contacted several people, and before long a group of believers were in the hospital, praying for the Lord’s intervention and healing.

Meanwhile, the doctor and medical staff had decided to reduce my body temperature in order to “force” blood to my brain in hopes of promoting healing and preserving any functions I had left. During this time, they had me in a medically-induced coma to prevent unconscious struggling. Later, to prevent shivering, they also administered paralyzing drugs.

One of my biggest fears as a husband was having my wife be crying in a desperate situation without my being able to be there to care for her. At the time, I was afraid it would be due to something “stupid” that I had done. I never imagined it would happen this way.

For three days, I was paralyzed and comatose. But my family and friends continued praying! The medical staff gradually took me out of the coma, with Keri and one of our sons or daughter at my bedside almost round the clock. I can hazily remember as if in a dream the removal of the throat tube and an oxygen mask being placed on my head. (For the next day or so, Keri and our son Joshua would patiently prevent me from constantly trying to remove the mask subconsciously from my face.) I can also remember (again as if in a dream) a nurse taking my hand and telling me to squeeze her thumb – a very important functionality test. Keri then said, “Do you know who I am?” It seems like someone else replied from within me, “You are Keri, my wonderful wife.” The Lord had miraculously intervened and I was completely restored! He is so kind to those who call on Him, and deserves all the credit for how this incident turned out: