Race against time as medics save lives of two Cork city marathon runners

“These men’s hearts stopped. They were dead. We need to show appreciation to these medical volunteers and reward them with more training.”

Volunteers Alan Barry (St John Ambulance) and Robert Klimaszewski (Civil Defence) at the Cork City Marathon medical centre. Mr Barry was one of the first responders to a runner having a cardiac arrest on the South Link Road on Sunday

Meet the medics who saved the lives of two runners who went into cardiac arrest during the Cork city marathon.

Dr Jason van der Velde, a pre-hospital emergency medicine and critical care retrieval physician at Cork University Hospital (CUH) who has been the marathon’s medical director for just over a decade, said both runners would have died were it not for the swift actions and skills of the medics who were on duty across the race course, and who were supported by statutory agencies and community bystanders.