CHARLESTON, NC--A strong faith and a good team of medical
professionals is hard to beat. And if you are a runner about to suffer sudden
cardiac arrest, there's probably no better place to be than in the midst of a
large group of running enthusiasts - who happen to be doctors and nurses - and
close to the MUSC Heart and Vascular Center.
Steve Aceto, 54, of Montreat, N.C., will attest to that after
surviving a heart attack during the recent Cooper River Bridge Run.
Aceto, an attorney, was running alongside Robert Barker, his
childhood friend and neighbor who is a general practitioner and running
enthusiast. Aceto's son Bill was ahead of his father.
Aceto and Barker had made it across the bridge and were on
Meeting Street at about the five-mile marker when Aceto fell motionless in the
street. Barker quickly noticed his absence and turned back to render aid to his
friend, who had suffered a heart attack five years ago. Running behind them
were a number of other doctors and nurses, many of them connected with the
Medical University of South Carolina.
When they began attending to Aceto, they could not detect a
pulse. They began administering CPR and called for an automated external
defibrillator (AED), which administered a shock that got Aceto's heart beating
again. Emergency medical services (EMS) had been summoned, and they were able
to get him to MUSC for treatment within minutes of the incident.
Simon Watson, an emergency room physician from MUSC, was one of
those runners closest to Aceto and called the hospital so the cardiac care
team, headed by Eric Powers, could be assembled quickly.
Powers said that within 72 minutes from the time Aceto collapsed
the team had cleared the blockage, placed two stents in his artery and sent him
on his way to a room in the Critical Care Unit.
Aceto said the bridge was no big deal, that back home in the
mountains of North Carolina "we have speed bumps steeper than that.'"
But Aceto's wife, Fran, had voiced some concerns to Barker, and he agreed to
join them in the race. Aceto said he works out regularly, has never had high
cholesterol, doesn't smoke or drink. But he has a family history of heart
problems.
'She asked him if he would hang back,' Aceto said. '(Barker)
denied his inner competitor. I'm grateful for that because he was there when I
collapsed.'
Aceto said it was a wonderful run.
'I got over the bridge and back down. I got a good bit of the
way down Meeting Street and was just about to the turn at the 5-mile marker. It
was like flipping off a switch. I didn't have any sensation of falling. Just a
sharp pain and oblivion.
'My next memory was looking up and seeing a bunch of people I
did not know who seemed very glad to see me. I found out later they had been
doing CPR on me for about 10 minutes, including my dear friend who apparently
pushed a beautiful emergency room nurse out of the way to do it. He and I are
going to have words about that.'
Barker said that when he saw Aceto in the road he ran back,
turned Aceto onto his back, grabbed his head and began yelling to him, trying
to get a response.
'We had been talking, and then I looked to my left and he wasn't
there,' said Barker, who earlier had used his cell phone camera to take photos
of Aceto from front and back on the bridge and texted them to Aceto's wife to
assure her things were going OK. As he was performing CPR, Barker was thinking
about having to call Fran and, simultaneously about how he and Aceto were going
to get a DNF - did not finish - in the race. He said he placed his hand on his
friend's forehead and began praying.
'All of a sudden, his right hand moved. And then somebody said
he's breathing. He said, 'I need to get up.' It was like he came back from the
dead.'
Aceto said technically he was dead, and he plans to frame his
race number, stained with blood from where he hit the pavement, alongside the
printout from the automated external defibrillator to prove he ran the race.
His ribs are sore from the CPR, but he said he thought his heart
might be better than ever.
Powers said there was no damage to the heart muscle and that
Aceto could resume normal activities within a few days and even begin working
out in a couple of weeks.
'The time was critical,' Powers said. 'If this had happened 10
years ago before systems like this were set up, he would not have survived.
We're very proud of what we've accomplished here at MUSC, but what saved his
life is what was done (when Aceto fell).
Five more minutes? He probably would not have survived. If he
had been running where there were not people to do this, he probably would not
have survived.'
Aceto said there wasn't time to be frightened, that he had trust
in God as well as the professionals who were treating him.
'They put me in. They obviously knew what they were doing. They
had a plan and they executed it,' he said. 'There are just a wonderful,
professional bunch...There are so many remarkable coincidences in this
situation that cannot be attributed to anything other than the heavenly Father
was wanting to accomplish something. He gives very good gifts. Some are
strange. I've had many good gifts in my life. I had a second chance. Actually,
I guess this is a third chance.
'I happened to be among the right people,' he said, 'at the
right place and at the right time.'