Utah Samaritans help Montanan survive marathon

A Montana man who collapsed and nearly died while running in the Salt Lake City Marathon last weekend is alive and back home today thanks to the quick actions of two good Samaritans.

"Two angels happened to be there," Mike Patterson said from his home in Butte.

Patterson, 53, had just crossed 5600 South and the Van Winkle Expressway when he collapsed.

"I guess my heart stopped," he said.

Patterson said until that point he felt great and had shown no signs of trouble.

He collapsed right in front of Kristen Keefe, a neuroscience teacher who also worked as a volunteer paramedic years ago in Maryland. She was there with her daughter watching the race.

After watching him stumble, she asked Patterson if he needed to sit down.

"I thought he was just overheated because it was so hot. By the time he turned around, he was totally nonresponsive. He did not say anything," Keefe said. "The color around his lips was turning blue. He wasn't breathing. There was no pulse."

Salt Lake County Sheriff's Sgt. Don Hutson was working traffic control nearby when he heard Keefe yell for help.

"It was pretty clear he was in pretty bad shape. He was not breathing. He had a weakened pulse that turned into no pulse," he said.

Keefe delivered mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while Hutson did compressions on Patterson's chest. Hutson said they were able to get a weak pulse and staggered breathing by the time paramedics arrived and took over.

Patterson was rushed to Cottonwood Hospital. He did not begin breathing fully on his own again until Sunday morning, Hutson said. But when he did, he rebounded strongly enough that he was released from the hospital Wednesday and drove back to Montana.

Doctors did not believe Patterson suffered a heart attack, Hutson said. But they weren't sure Thursday exactly what happened to him. Patterson didn't know either.

"He really didn't remember anything past running in Sugarhouse Park which was miles before (he collapsed)," Hutson said.

Patterson said it was his first marathon. He began running a few years ago to lose weight after breaking a smoking habit and had run a few half-marathons. He was very thankful to those who helped him.