Cardiologist Resuscitates Two Fellow Runners During California Half Marathon

Cardiologist Resuscitates Two Fellow Runners During California Half Marathon
Two runners collapsed and needed mid-race medical attention at the Monterey Bay Half Marathon on November 13. Until help arrived, runner and local cardiologist Steven Lome, D.O., administered life-saving measures to both male runners.

Lome, a cardiologist with Montage Medical Group in Monterey, California, tweeted that around mile 3 a runner went down, suffering cardiac arrest.

“Started CPR…people called 911. Defibrillator arrived in about 6 minutes, and rhythm was ventricular fibrillation (fatal arrhythmia). One shock and normal heart rhythm restored,” Lome tweeted.

Lome said he assisted the runner into an ambulance.

Race medical director John Ellison, M.D., the the medical director for Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula’s Emergency department, told the Monterey Herald that after the runner’s heart rate was restored to normal, he “miraculously woke up,” and by the time he was brought to the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula he was awake and talking.

Lome continued running, tweeting he’d never catch up with his teenage kids who were also running.

Ellison told the Herald that after the first incident he thought, “that was our once-in-a-decade event at the half marathon.”

Yet at the finish line another male runner collapsed. And who was there to administer CPR?

Steven Lome.

“I crossed the finish line and threw my arms in the air…and another runner goes down right in front of me. Completely out. No pulse. Started CPR. Within 1 to 2 minutes a race volunteer brought a [defibrillator]...One shock and I restart chest compressions. He opens his eyes and says, “Why am I down here?” then proceeds to stop his Strava on his watch and wants to get up,” Lome tweeted.

That runner was also taken to Community Hospital.

Ellison told the Herald that a local cardiologist who happened to be finishing the race at the same time, performed the life-saving measure. It’s unclear if Ellison knew Lome was the same good samaritan at the beginning of the race.

Ellison said both runners were middle-aged and experienced who felt “like they were prepared to run.”

Lome, who did not treat the runners in the hospital, tweeted: “Both had undiagnosed heart disease, out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, and made full recoveries. What are the odds that two people have a cardiac arrest in one race? What are the odds they both make a full recovery (normally only 5% survive out of hospital cardiac arrest?) What are the odds that the same cardiologist happens to be right behind them both???”

Lome told Runner’s World by e-mail that he walked much of the race between the first and second incident because he was on the phone with medical personnel at the hospital.

Lome gave the second runner he assisted his own race medal when he visited him in the hospital.

“He did not receive one at the finish line and he crossed the finish before his cardiac arrest, so he clearly deserved it,” Lome said.

Lome, who has a half marathon PR of 1:42:04, finished the race in 2:30:32. His kids? 1:48:31 and 1:48:58. But they didn’t save any lives.