Tommy Chan knows he ran five kilometres on Tuesday, May 20. He just doesn’t remember it.
In fact, he doesn’t recall anything from that date — waking up days later in haze at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute after suffering what he says was a post-run heart attack.
“I don’t even remember the massage therapy or going to class beforehand,” Chan said.
“I just know nothing about what happened that day, or the next four.”
Since his collapse, the 39-year-old says he’s done some detective work in an attempt to recover the missing pieces and learn more about the people who saved his life.
The running app Strava tells him he finished his 5K run around Bronson and Carling at 7:50 p.m. His Garmin smartwatch, which is linked to Strava, shows his heart rate throughout that cool spring day.
A noticeable spike Chan assumes is his evening run is followed by a sudden lack of any readings at all: the chart goes blank.
But what his tech doesn’t tell him is anything about those who lent a hand.
Chan says he was likely walking home when his heart gave out, with paramedics saying they responded to the area near the intersection of Carling and Champagne avenues around 8:50 p.m., finding an adult male in cardiac arrest.
Ottawa Fire Services also responded, using a defibrillator to administer a shock, with the emergency teams eventually able to get his heart back to a more normal rhythm.
But before any of that, bystanders initiated CPR under the direction of the paramedics services’ communication officers.
“This teamwork between bystanders, firefighters and paramedics clearly shows the importance of the chain of survival,” said Marc-Antoine Deschamps, superintendent for the Ottawa Paramedic Service in an emailed statement.
Chan still feels those good deeds: the broken ribs he was left with are a painful reminder of the kindness of others. Besides the soreness in his chest, he’s also felt a desire to reach out and let others know he’s still alive.
“If I were a Good Samaritan, that would be cool to know that this person is doing OK,” he said.
Now he has at least one person he can thank after posting about his mystery online under the heading, “Did you save my life?”
Tawnya Shimizu is a nurse practitioner who was with her daughter that day when the two saw a commotion to the side of their car. Already people had gathered around an unconscious Chan lying on the ground.
“I could hear the 9-1-1 operator giving directions on CPR and counting out the timing,” she said. “So my daughter was immediately like, ‘Mommy, you’re a nurse. You need to help!'”
Introducing herself, she took over CPR until emergency services arrived. She said she entered work mode at that moment.
Only when it was all said and done was she left with a mystery of her own: what happened to Chan after the ambulance drove away?
“It’s definitely weighed on our minds, to kind of wonder if he was OK and if he survived,” she said.
Cardiologist Simon Hansom, director of Inherited Arrhythmia Clinic at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, says bystander CPR is “the number one thing you can do to save people.”
“You do your best,” the doctor said. “If someone’s had a cardiac arrest, you’re not going to make them any worse than they already are.”
After connecting online, Shimizu, her daughter and Chan now have plans to meet this weekend — with Chan having the opportunity to express his gratitude to Shimizu live on air on CBC Radio’s Ottawa Morning on Friday morning.
“The biggest thank you,” Chan said. “I don’t know what else to say. Like, I can’t believe you were at the right place at the right time. So I don’t know how I can never repay you.”
“You’re very welcome,” Shimizu said. “I think everyone who helped you that day just did it because that’s human nature.”
