Estimated read time: 7-8 minutes
- Dan Sorensen was saved by marathon runners after a cardiac arrest at mile 22 of the St. George Marathon last month.
- Emergency room nurses and a doctor performed CPR, ensuring his survival until paramedics arrived.
- Sorensen and his family expressed gratitude for the overwhelming support and timely intervention.
MURRAY — Dan Sorensen knows what it is like to be on mile 22 of a marathon — he has done it several times. That's why he understands what it means for multiple people to stop running at mile 22 and help him, likely saving his life.
At that point in a race, Dan says, runners are calling on everything they have and thinking about their race time. "The last thing you're hoping for is a distraction like that, you know? But the fact that they just instinctively dropped all that … to use their skill to help somebody that was in dire need" was amazing, he said.
Dan and his family, who are from Millcreek, were along the route of the St. George Marathon on Oct. 5, helping encourage runners and running alongside those they knew. He and his son, Oliver Sorenson, had just started running with one of Oliver's friends when Dan went into cardiac arrest. Luckily, experienced bystanders were there to help.
On Tuesday, Dan and his family were reunited with two emergency room nurses and one doctor who stopped along their marathon runs to help him. "These are my rescuers," he exclaimed upon seeing them.
There were smiles and hugs between the impromptu medical team and family as they met in person for the first time. The medical staff told Dan he looked great for a guy who had been through what he had, and then all involved eagerly recounted the miraculous story.
Mile 22
Each of the people who stopped to help Dan said they had something happen along the course that slowed them down and put them just in the right place at the right time to aid Sorensen.
"The timing added up exactly right to be — just right there," said Julie Street, an emergency room nurse manager in Saratoga Springs.
Katie Bradshaw Smith, an ER nurse at St. Mark's Hospital in Millcreek, was aiming for a time that would qualify her for the Boston Marathon. However, her knee gave out around the halfway point of the race, slowing her down.
Dr. Mike Henstrom, an ER doctor at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, said he sustained a hamstring injury around mile 9 that would act up occasionally through the rest of the race, slowing him down.
His wife, Stephanie Henstrom, had finished the half marathon and ran back to help her husband finish. She said she saw Dan running, and then suddenly on the ground, and she yelled to Oliver that her husband was there and could help.
The doctor and nurses reached Dan at about the same time and worked to find his pulse. They started performing CPR as soon as Dan's pulse stopped, which they said happened shortly after they arrived. Mike Henstrom said quick initiation of CPR can make a big difference because it keeps oxygen going to the brain and preserves brain function.
Street said the situation was unique for her. She is used to being able to reach behind her and grab certain tools, but this time she didn't have anything except herself, which she said was difficult.
She said she had a song by singer Chappell Roan playing loudly in her earbuds while running and asked others there to take them out for her after she started doing CPR.
The three continued to work as officers and paramedics arrived, eventually using a bag police had with them to help get Dan oxygen more effectively. The officers told the runners paramedics could take over so they could start running again, but the runners wouldn't consider it.
The impromptu medical team stayed there until Dan was taken away in an ambulance; all three finished the race despite the added delay. Dan joked on Tuesday that he'd like for the marathon officials to take some of that time out of their official race times.
Overwhelming support
From his viewpoint, Oliver said he noticed his dad tripping over his left foot just a few seconds after he started running with them. Initially, he thought it was because Dan was looking at his phone while running, but he quickly realized that his dad's foot was not leaving the ground and watched as Dan fell forward onto the ground, not moving.
Oliver said he turned his dad over and saw he was unresponsive, with a "completely blank face," but it wasn't long before he heard help was coming. He said Mike Henstrom came up in a white shirt and "looked like an angel." He placed his dad's head in the doctor's hands and then called 911.
Eventually, Oliver said they turned down people who wanted to help, just because there were so many. "Just overwhelming support from all sorts of people that were just trying to do anything … to get him breathing again," he said.
Oliver called his mom, who was standing with his wife near the mile 23 marker and had just seen an ambulance go by. Jana Sorensen said her son told her to get there quickly because Dan might not make it through.
She immediately ran to her husband's side, telling the group on Tuesday, "That's the fastest quarter mile I've ever run."
By the time she got there, Dan was hooked to a machine brought by paramedics. Once the machine got his heart beating, Jana rode with her husband in the ambulance to St. George Regional Hospital.
Dan said he doesn't remember much about that day, but he remembers waking up gradually in the hospital to a family reunion.
A daughter from out of town was just finishing a visit to Utah and made a drive to St. George; another daughter flew in quickly from North Carolina, getting to St. George that night. Shortly after everyone got there, Dan squeezed his son's hand on command, giving the family hope.
The family said nurses were incredible and helped them stay hopeful, one of them remaining with the family through the night.
Dan was in the hospital for a few days before being transported to Intermountain Medical Center for a quadruple bypass surgery, allowing him to recover closer to home.
He said he is feeling better each day and has been able to rake leaves and attend his granddaughter's birthday party.
Prior to the race, Dan said he had felt tightness on his morning runs, but it resolved each time. Oliver said Dan had mentioned his heart was hurting the day of the marathon, and Oliver joked that it was marathon anxiety from remembering the stress of a marathon. He said if he had known the history, he might not have joked.
Gratitude
Dan said it was "very heartwarming" to thank his rescuers in person and embrace them.
When the ambulance left, each of the helpers didn't know if he would make it, having experienced cardiac arrest patients in the emergency room. Mike Henstrom said an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest doesn't often have a good outcome — but they tried to be hopeful.
Stephanie Henstrom was able to connect with Oliver on social media, and soon they received a picture of Dan sitting up in a chair — which was unexpected.
Smith said in the emergency room, where each of them worked, they don't often learn the outcome of the people they help. They help intubate serious patients and then see them leave, so seeing this full story was meaningful for her.
"I'm really grateful to see some good come out of it. I feel really grateful we were a part of it," she said.
She added that the fact that they were all medically trained doesn't matter because the steps they took are something anyone with CPR training could do.
Mike Henstrom said even people who may not be as familiar with CPR shouldn't hesitate — if a person doesn't need CPR, they'll react; if they don't respond, he said people should keep going with CPR the best they can.
