Everyday Hero: Doctor saved by son during marathon heart attack

URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) — Doctor Rafael Ruggeri was running the Christie Clinic Illinois Marathon this year when he suddenly collapsed at Meadowbrook Park. He was having a heart attack.

Luckily, his son Isaac was running with him, and Isaac had just been trained on CPR a few weeks before the race.

“I had this impression about a month before that he ought to go ahead and do it because he would need that training someday,” Rafael said. “I just didn’t know he was going to need it for me.”

“We got him on his back, checked his pulse and everything,” Isaac said. “I had someone call 911 when he looked discolored and everything. Then after he had no pulse and breathing, we started CPR.”

Rafael’s heart stopped seven times during the ordeal, and a defibrillator shocked him back to life each time. He credited the hard work of his son and several bystanders performing CPR as the reason why he is alive and healthy three months later.

Rafael is also urging people to get CPR certified because people never know when they might need that training.

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