Marathon runner Glen Phillips is looking for the good Samaritan who helped save his life. He suffered a major cardiac event recently while running on a mountain trail in Elysian Park and was found by a stranger who called 911. A second passerby performed CPR on Phillips until Los Angeles paramedics arrived. The paramedics carried him down the mountain and rushed him to Glendale Memorial Hospital, where doctors saved his life.
On Wednesday, May 24, Phillips thanked his physicians, care team and paramedics as he stressed the importance of getting trained to perform CPR, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
“I’m grateful beyond words for the collective efforts of Dr. Onkarjit Marwah and his team at Glendale Memorial Hospital, the Los Angeles Fire Department and its top-notch team of paramedics and emergency staff, and of course the two good Samaritans,” Phillips said in a statement. “My cardiac arrest illustrates the vital role CPR can play in saving a life — it could be the life of a stranger, or a close family member, your spouse, your parent, or your child. If you aren’t already certified in CPR, sign up today.”
Marwah, lead cardiologist doctor on the team who saved him, said, “Glen Phillips wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for multiple groups of people working together quickly and efficiently to save his life — starting with the good Samaritans who found him and began CPR, to the L.A. City Fire EMS who took over his care and brought him to Dignity Health Glendale Memorial Hospital where the ER and STEMI Receiving Center teams were waiting for his arrival.”
The team performed an angioplasty and put in stents to unblock Phillips’ clogged arteries. In the ICU he was placed in a hypothermia-induced coma. Two days later, “Phillips walked out of the hospital on his own and is already running again,” said Marwah. “They say it takes a village and this village worked together to save his life.”
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