Local News

Boston EMT's save man's life at Marathon

Posted: 04/19/10 at 10:55 pm    Updated: 04/20/10 at 7:01 am

BOSTON -- Spectators ran into action when a runner went into cardiac arrest on the course during Monday’s Boston Marathon.

They teamed up with EMT’s for the life-saving response.

Boston EMT’s Kelly Cronin and Carlos Garu had just finished working on another runner when she got the call that a man in his sixties who was running the Marathon was down on Beacon Street near the Mass Pike overpass.

“We got back on our bikes and rode through the Marathon runners and when got there he was unconscious and cardiac arrest,” Cronin said.

A doctor who was watching the race had arrived first and started doing chest compressions.

“Bystander CPR...it’s such a great help for the patient...We proceeded to start chest compressions and ventilate him and we got our defibrillator on the rest is history,” Cronin said.

They brought the man back to life right there on the street.

EMT’s said they see it all on Marathon Monday, but this was rare.

“Here in Boston it’s pretty abnormal. A few years ago I did a cardiac arrest at the finish line. This is my second one here,” Garu said.

A life was saved, but for these two EMT’s, it was just another day on the job.

That man was taken to the hospital where he is reportedly in stable condition.

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