Rand Mintzer died for eight minutes during the Houston Marathon. A spectator, who happened to be a nurse, brought him back to life.
Mintzer was more than halfway through his 24th marathon when he knew he was in trouble.
“I wasn’t feeling well, so I went over and threw up. “I started running again, but I felt very light-headed and things kind of became blurry," Mintzer said.
The 57-year-old fell just before mile 15 and went into cardiac arrest. Stephanie Baisey a registered nurse from College Station Medical Center, was along the path cheering on family when Rand went down.
"The minute I see someone collapse, it's kind of just a natural instinct for me to jump in. And when you see that he has no pulse then the other natural instinct is that we're going to begin CPR," Baisey said.
She was able to perform multiple rounds of CPR until a group from a nearby assisted living center brought down a defibrillator and regained a pulse before emergency crews arrived.
"She saved my life," said Mintzer.
He was rushed to a hospital and is now recovering at home.
The Houston attorney has been running since his college days and even wrote a book about how it changed his life. But Mintzer says this was probably his last marathon.
He has spoken with Baisey and he hopes to meet her and the other people who helped save him to thank them in person.
Meanwhile, Baisey says she thinks it important that more people learn CPR.
"You don't have to be a medical professional to jump in and do CPR and to get a positive outcome. It could be your loved one. It could be the only one at home when someone goes down and you're the only option," said Baisey.
You can find a local CPR class near you by visiting here.