Plano

Avid Jogger Survives Heart Attack While Jogging

Heart attacks can happen with no warning and a Plano man says quick action saved his life

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Heart attacks can happen with no warning, and a Plano man says quick action saved his life.

An avid jogger for 30 years, Chandramouli Ganesan has logged countless hours on the same stretch of pavement at Russell Creek Park in Plano.

Six months ago, while on his regular run, he suddenly collapsed. A passerby found him lying face down, unresponsive, in the street near a parking lot.

Ganesan had had a heart attack and had no symptoms beforehand.

"I woke up in the hospital two days or three days later, and my family was in front of me. They told me I had a heart attack. I'm like, 'What? Really?'" said Ganesan.

A passerby called 911 and within two minutes, paramedics arrived and started CPR

Minutes later, he was in the cath lab at Baylor Scott and White Centennial, where doctors found and treated the blocked artery, the "culprit" of Ganesan's massive heart attack.

"If it wasn't for someone seeing him, just falling flat on the ground, not activating him, he would not be here," said interventional cardiologist Dr. Taimoor Gill.

Gill credits the passerby's quick thinking, paramedics' quick response and CPR with saving Ganesan's life.

"In this stage of media, just go to YouTube and see how to do CPR. You could be doing CPR on your parent, in your house. You never know! It's something that is life-saving that needs to be done by anyone. It doesn't take special expertise to do it," said Gill.

Ganesan eats well, exercises and takes care of his health. And even though he had zero warning signs a heart attack was imminent, his healthy lifestyle helped him quickly recover.

He's back running with each lap more meaningful than the last.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the United States, someone has a heart attack every 40 seconds and someone dies every 36 seconds from cardiovascular disease.

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