24-year-old runner ‘grateful to be alive’ after collapsing on track
Dominic Fusco of Austin, Texas, said he would be dead had he not been given CPR after going into cardiac arrest
A 24-year-old runner is on the road to recovery after going into cardiac arrest as he finished a mile effort on a high school track earlier this month. Dominic Fusco of Austin, Texas, has shared details of his shocking brush with death and his continuing return to health on social media following the incident that nearly ended his life on Aug. 5.
Posting a photo of himself giving a thumb’s up from a hospital bed five days later, Fusco wrote on Instagram that he was “grateful to be alive” after crashing down on the track and suffering cardiac arrest upon running a 5:15 mile.
“While I don’t have any recollection of anything after lap 3, apparently I tried to get back up, then collapsed again and went purple, had a seizure, and lost my pulse,” Fusco wrote. “At that point, I was dead.”
He added that had it not been for a firefighter who noticed what was going on and administered CPR immediately, “I wouldn’t be writing this.”
Fusco said he was taken to hospital and put on a ventilator. “They kept me on this all day and through the night, which kept me alive, since I couldn’t breathe on my own. They tried twice to take me off of it, but I still couldn’t breathe on my own.”
He regained consciousness after 24 hours on the ventilator. “I was heavily sedated on the medication, but I woke up to a room full of people who hadn’t left my side since the day before. Along with the amazing doctors and staff, I’m fully convinced that prayers, love, and positive energy saved me.”
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Fusco was transferred to a different hospital where cardiologists and electrophysiologists ran tests on his heart over several days.
“It’s been frustrating and scary,” Fusco wrote, “especially since they haven’t pinpointed a reason why this happened, what caused it, and there (are) still question marks for what lies ahead for me.”
He added he knows “there’s a reason it happened FOR me, not to me. It’s all part of God’s plan for my life.”
Earlier this week, Fusco posted reflections of what he says he’s learned two weeks after going into cardiac arrest and one week after being released from hospital. These included the importance of investing in relationships, telling “people you love how much you appreciate them” and taking immediate action toward achieving your dreams.
Also this week he posted video of himself doing squats and light exercises outdoors, writing “grateful for the healing and feeling a bit better day by day.”
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