Dad was two miles away from finishing marathon when he collapsed with no pulse — a twist of fate helped save his life
The 2023 Long Beach Half Marathon in Southern California is still being remembered for many reasons, the main being the life-saving miracle for a dad named Tuan Pham, Diario AS reported. Tuan, a keen runner, had participated in marathons before but this one was special as he was being accompanied by his 16-year-old son, Josh. Just when the dad had a mile or two to finish the race, he collapsed to the ground, leaving his son, who was waiting at the finish line in horror. Fortunately, a passerby stepped out of a restaurant right then and spotted Tuan unresponsive. The dad’s fate ensured this passerby would be one who could save him.
The father-son duo were in good health and high spirits when they were preparing for the 13-mile race. They started on an energetic note, aiming to make the marathon a powerful memory. Josh had reportedly finished the race before his dad and was waiting for him at the finish line, ABC 7 reported. As the teenager spotted his dad, with a mile or two to finish, he saw him collapse. Within seconds, Tuan had no pulse, wasn’t breathing and became unresponsive, per the Long Beach Post. It was at that very moment that a stranger, Ryan Chiu, happened to leave a restaurant right where the runner collapsed.
"I was just walking out when the marathon was being run and I saw one of the runners stumble in front of me,” he recalled. It must have been fate that Chiu, a cardiothoracic surgeon from MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center, stepped out in time. He rushed to Tuan and was quickly able to understand that he was suffering a cardiac arrest. According to the American Heart Association, more than 436,000 cardiac arrest deaths occur each year in the U.S. There is only a 10% or less chance of survival for those who suffer cardiac arrests outside of a hospital. Fortunately, for Tuan, he was met with immediate assistance from the best person possible.
Chiu and another bystander began administering CPR to the dad. The surgeon quickly called the ambulance and also alerted his team about an emergency surgery. At the hospital, it was learned that Tuan had coronary artery disease. "Both my parents died from heart disease. But I have physicals all the time and all the numbers were fine, so I had no idea," Tuan explained. He underwent the surgery and was expected to recover, per CBS LA. Looking back on how the whole event unfolded, the dad is shocked yet grateful. “I can’t believe the one guy, the first guy, to see me fall, to show up and give me help, was a cardiac surgeon. What are the odds?” he exclaimed.
The story became even more a twist of fate when Chiu revealed that he was supposed to leave the restaurant a few minutes before but was forced by a friend to stay for the view. “I shudder to think that if we had left a little bit earlier, I would’ve never seen him go down,” the surgeon remarked. Tuan added, "There was some divine intervention. I mean, somebody put us there together.”