Last month, during the 2024 Illinois Half Marathon, surgeon Rafael Ruggieri collapsed at the eight-mile mark when his heart stopped beating. His 18-year-old son, Isaac, who had just completed CPR training a week before, quickly assessed the situation. Realizing his father wasn't breathing and didn’t have a pulse, Isaac asked a bystander to call 911 and started chest compressions.
His quick response and his recent training helped save his father's life. Reflecting on the incident, the teen recalls thinking, "This is it: save your dad or he dies." Thanks to his son’s intervention, Rafael survived and is now recovering. He believes he owes his life to the immediate CPR his son provided and now he’s stressing the importance of early and high-quality CPR.
Despite not being certain of the cause of his heart failure, Rafael seems to be continuing to recover and has had a defibrillator implanted as a precaution. He’s back to running on a treadmill and plans to take part in a marathon with Isaac this summer, though he says he’s going to take it slowly and proceed with caution.
Source: RUNNERS WORLD
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