“What are the odds?”: Runner’s life saved by nearby doctor in stunning twist of fate

There’s a lot to be said about being in the right place at the right time - and sometimes, your life can depend on it.

That must be how Tuan Pham is feeling after a miraculous stroke of good fortune saved him from certain death.

The 47-year-old was a keen runner and signed up for the Long Beach Half Marathon - a 13-mile race along a stunning backdrop of the Pacific coastline held every year in Southern California.

Pham had taken part in six such races and was feeling excited about the 2023 Long Beach Half Marathon, which he entered with his 16-year-old son, Josh, also a keen long-distance runner.

What Tuan didn’t know was that he has a dangerous underlying health condition - three blocked arteries, a ticking time bomb which could take his life if his heart was put under too much strain.

Josh was already at the finishing line, waiting for his father who was just approaching the 12-mile mark when he suddenly collapsed.

From a marathon to a race against time

Onlookers gasped as Tuan fell head first to the ground, where he lay motionless and gray-faced. He was unresponsive, had no pulse and wasn’t breathing. It was just a matter of time before he suffered multiple organ failure.

But by an incredible stroke of luck, just as Tuan hit the floor, Ryan Chiu, a cardiothoracic surgeon from MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center, was coming out of a nearby restaurant just a few feet away. Dr. Chiu immediately recognized that Tuan had suffered a cardiac arrest and that there was no time to lose.

He began pumping Pham’s chest to manually pump blood through the heart. Then enlisted the help of a bystander to continue CPR while he phoned Long Beach Memorial Hospital, telling the desk to prepare for the admission of an emergency patient - they would need to organize an operating room and a surgical team.

Tuan woke up in a hospital bed with no idea of how he got there and no recollection of what had happened. He had undergone a triple heart bypass, performed by Dr. Chiu himself.

“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,” Pham told the Long Beach Post. “What are the odds?”

Doctor tried to leave the restaurant a few minutes earlier

The story is even more astonishing because Dr. Chiu had wanted to leave the restaurant a little earlier but was persuaded to stay by a friend to take in the breathtaking ocean views. One minute either way, and Dr. Chiu would have missed seeing Pham fall. “I shudder to think that if we had left a little bit earlier that I would’ve never seen him go down,” the heart surgeon said.

Sudden cardiac death is relatively rare in marathon runners although the risk rises substantially to 17% for those who have coronary artery anomalies. Meanwhile, according to the American Heart Association, the odds of surviving a cardiac arrest outside of a hospital are less than 12%. Tuan Pham’s chance encounter saved his life.

“I’m not a spiritual guy, but I think my parents saved me. Just somehow, they put him [Chiu] there to be there for me,” concludes Pham, who hopes his story inspires others to see a doctor and get their heart health checked.

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