A year after a runner’s first try at a half-marathon ended in tragedy, he is vowing to do it all again on Sunday, alongside a doctor who helped his recovery.
At last year’s edition of the Montreal Marathon, Stephane Demers was approaching the finish line. Up until then, it had been a glorious day for the longtime runner to partake in a race.
“Some days you feel less like running and other days, it’s perfect,” he said. “That day was perfect.”
That’s when tragedy struck. Demers collapsed, suffering from cardiac arrest. First responders rushed to his side within a minute, a quick response time that Dr. Francois de Champlain, medical director at the marathon, credits with savings Demers’s life.
“The use of an automatic external defibrillator, this little device that anyone can use really, can save someone’s life (along with) CPR,” said de Champlain.
Demers had no pulse or heartbeat for eight minutes.
“My first memory after waking up at the hospital with my wife holding my hand and pipes everywhere,” he said.
Demers isn’t alone. Statistics show that there is a cardiac arrest every 12 minutes in Canada, many occurring without warning.
Among those claimed by cardiac arrest was de Champlain’s father. That’s what led the physician to found the Jacques de Champlain Foundation, which aims to educate people on how to use defibrillators.
“The idea of the foundation is to try and build a registry of the location of the different (defibrillators), to map and link to an app for smartphones for people to be able to localize very quickly,” he said. “I suspect that there’s plenty of (defibrillators) that are not being used to their full potential because no one, including 911, knows where they are.”
During Demers’ recovery, he and de Champlain bonded, an unusual experience for the doctor.
“It’s weird to meet someone in cardiac arrest. Rarely in emergency medicine do we get the chance to chat and follow up on our patients,” said de Champlain.
The doctor encouraged his new friend to run again this year. Instead of the half-marathon, Demers is starting off slow with a 5k with de Champlain jogging by his side.
“I need some kind of closure,” said Demers. “That wasn’t the way I was expecting (it to go) so I’m happy now that I will be running.”
