Bryan Jefferson has no memory of suffering a cardiac arrest while running in last year’s Crescent City Classic 10K.
“I remember pinning my number on my shirt Friday night, and then I remember waking up in the hospital Monday night or Tuesday morning,” he told Verite News.
Jefferson, an avid runner who has participated in the race for more than 30 years, said he followed the same routine he did every year for the race, and last year he hadn’t planned to change it.
Part of that routine would have included walking to his friend’s house once the race was over. The friend would drive him back to his car downtown.
But Jefferson never made it to his friend’s house. Instead, he collapsed near the entrance to City Park at the end of the race route because his heart had stopped.
A spectator who happened to be a doctor came to Jefferson’s aid and administered CPR. First responders with New Orleans Emergency Medical Services, which is stationed along the race route, came to Jefferson within minutes and restarted his heart. Jefferson said that after New Orleans EMS put him in the back of an ambulance, his heart stopped a second time. He said they used a LUCAS device, which provides consistent chest compression to patients in need, to revive his heart and broke three of his ribs in the process.
Jefferson, who told Verite News that he was fit with no prior health problems during his decades of running the race, said it took the doctors several months to figure out what caused his cardiac arrest. Ultimately, doctors decided he had a spasm of his right coronary artery.
He was lucky that the incident happened at the right location, where a doctor and EMS were nearby, he said.
People who suffer from cardiac arrest outside of a hospital have approximately a 10 percent chance of survival, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Dr. Meg Marino, New Orleans EMS director and medical director, said that only two percent of patients who go into cardiac arrest outside of the hospital survive neurologically intact.
Marino said Jefferson’s experience was “very, very remarkable.”
Eric Stuart, the race director for the Crescent City Classic, remembers hearing about Jefferson’s collapse. He visited Jefferson at University Medical Center, where he was hospitalized following the incident.
“We try not to just let people disappear when something like that happens,” Stuart said. “We want to reassure that we’re with them.”
Stuart brought Jefferson t-shirts, hats and told him he could run the 2025 classic for free.
“I’m never happy when anybody goes down,” Stuart said. “Unfortunately, it’s an occurrence even with people that are in shape.”
Preparing for the 2025 Crescent City Classic
Stuart said that the weather at this year’s race is expected to be hot, and that the race will be taking extra precautions this year, such as having more water and Gatorade than normal, extra ambulances, police and a larger medical tent at the finish line.
In addition to the precautions the race organizers are taking, Stuart advised runners to know their limitations, start training for the race early and stay hydrated.
Marino said runners should not ignore signs of overheating or fatigue.
“If you start to feel dizzy, if you start to feel nauseated, if you start to feel lightheaded, if you have any chest pain, those are all reasons to stop and ask for help right away,” Marino said.
Marino suggested that runners contact their closest race staff if they start to feel unwell. She also mentioned avoiding strenuous activity during peak hours when it’s hot out, hence why the race is mostly in the morning. She said it is important for people to wear sun protection, take frequent breaks in shaded areas and hydrate with electrolyte-filled beverages.
“It’s really important that we take care of our bodies while we’re stressing them, anytime we run a race or stressing our body to do something outside the normal of what our body does,” she said.
Jefferson said he will be at this year’s Crescent City Classic, but unsure if he will run, jog, walk or just take breaks throughout. He still runs or jogs as much as he can. He now takes medication for his heart. He told Verite that he’s deeply grateful for the medical workers who saved his life.
“Thank you for sparing my family and friends from the agony that they would have had to suffer if they didn’t save my life,” he said. “Because I wouldn’t have suffered it, my family and my friends would have suffered it.”
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