A 74-year-old runner was revived after suffering cardiac arrest during Saturday’s 17th annual Haworth 5K, where police, a firefighter and members of the Haworth Volunteer Ambulance Corps responded along Haworth Avenue. The race began at 142 Terrace St. and drew regional competitors and local families.
Daily Voice reported that Sgt. Gianluca Ragone called for emergency medical assistance after seeing the runner collapse. Responders found the man unresponsive, not breathing and in cardiac arrest, according to Lt. Justin Fox. D/Sgt. James Morgan, Demarest firefighter and special police officer Matthew Carey, and ambulance corps members also took part in the response.
The responders began CPR and used an automated external defibrillator, according to the report. The AED delivered one shock; Fox said the runner later began breathing and regained consciousness while treatment continued at the scene. The Haworth Volunteer Ambulance Corps transported him to Englewood Hospital. No further information about his condition has been released.
Why the first minutes matter
The Haworth response illustrates the two immediate interventions emphasized in cardiac-arrest guidance: chest compressions and rapid defibrillation. The American Heart Association says CPR started right away can double or triple the chance of survival after an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The American College of Cardiology advises athletic venues to keep AEDs reliably accessible and says a shock should be delivered within three minutes of recognizing sudden cardiac arrest.
Those recommendations describe what event organizers and responders should be prepared to do; they do not establish how quickly each step occurred in Haworth. The available account confirms that CPR was started, an AED was used and the device delivered one shock, but it does not provide response-time measurements or identify the runner’s underlying medical condition.
A similar race rescue, with important differences
A separate incident at the New York City Marathon offers a comparison rather than a measure of how common such events are. CBS News reported that, on Nov. 4, 41-year-old runner Kristie Elfering received CPR from a physician and defibrillation from responding paramedics and FDNY personnel before being taken to a hospital. That was a marathon involving a different runner, course and medical-response network, so it cannot be used to predict the outcome of the Haworth case.
The Haworth runner’s later condition remains unknown. What is documented is narrower but significant: a collapse during a community 5K prompted an emergency call, on-scene CPR, AED use and ambulance transport, giving responders the opportunity to apply the core measures recommended for sudden cardiac arrest.
