Brett Daniel, Seattle, WA – 33 at the time of event (2007)
On August 18th, 2007, while jogging with my wife and one-year-old son, I collapsed from sudden cardiac arrest. Like many survivors, I am only here to tell the story because it was the luckiest unlucky day of my 33 years of life.
On a crystal-clear Seattle morning, my wife and I decided to go for a weekend run. Eight minutes into the run, we decided to stop, stretch and enjoy the views of the Puget Sound and surrounding mountains.
As we slowed down, I bent over our jogging stroller and collapsed. My wife rushed to my aid and noted that I did not have a pulse and was breathing in an irregular, tongue-rattling manner. My eyes were distant. In one stroke of luck, I was on-call for my medical practice that weekend, and my cell phone had fallen out next to my body helping my wife to call 9-1-1 immediately. Thankfully, my wife, and guardian angel, is also a physician and began CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation).
Neighbors across the street from the park came out upon hearing my wife’s cries helped watch our son, and clarified directions for the medics. Seattle has one of the highest survival rates for out-of-hospital arrest, and the medics arrived within five minutes. Four shocks and a dose of epinephrine later, my heart came out of the ventricular fibrillation that had caused the arrest and resumed its regular sinus pattern. I was saved.
I would love to say that after five days in the ICU and numerous electrophysiologic studies that there was an answer. However, there are no answers at this point. My arteries are clean. My total cholesterol is 130. I am active and fit. No ECG abnormalities.
Perhaps it was just stress and a reminder of the tenderness of life. I had been seeing high numbers of patients in clinic, had been building a men’s health website, had been increasing my presence as the local sports radio doc, and had been doing all that I could to be the perfect husband and father. Perhaps it was too much. Perhaps I just needed a reminder of what is truly important in life and to slow down and enjoy all that we have been given. I feel fortunate to have gained this enlightenment at the age of 33, even at the cost.
I have an implanted defibrillator to save me from any future arrhythmias. I hope that it never goes off, but I am glad to have the insurance policy. I feel lucky. I hope that by increasing awareness about CPR and defibrillators, others can feel just as lucky when they are saved.
-SCA Survivor Registry submission