Dead 11 minutes, suburban native called 'Second Miracle on Hudson'
The New York City Triathlon was going to be his first, and Chris LaPak was ready.
LaPak, 52, a former Northbrook and Vernon Hills resident, ran marathons, worked out daily and trained for three months with an Olympic swim coach to prepare.
He kept an eye on his health because his parents died of heart attacks in their mid-50s. He didn't drink or smoke, ate well, took baby aspirin and passed yearly stress tests.
"What's the worst thing that can happen?" he joked the night before the Aug. 3 triathlon.
The next morning, he found out.
Early in the swimming portion, LaPak went into sudden cardiac arrest, lost consciousness and started to drown. Lifeguards pulled him out of the Hudson River. LaPak showed no signs of life.
First responders started CPR and used defibrillators to get his stopped heart beating briefly. But by the time he arrived in the emergency room, LaPak had been clinically dead for 11 minutes, paramedics reported. Even if he lived, doctors warned his family, he would have brain damage.
What happened next is something doctors and friends now call the "Second Miracle on the Hudson" - the first being Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger's emergency landing of Flight 1549 in the river with no casualties.
Because of what LaPak calls "miracles at every step," and the immediate use of a body temperature-lowering procedure, he was not only brought back to life, but has made a complete recovery.
Today, LaPak's back at work as CEO of a graphics company, runs and works out regularly and even swam more than a mile a few weeks ago. He plans to run the Chicago Marathon next year.
"When I start thinking about (what happened), it's almost surreal," said LaPak, who now lives in Long Island, New York. "It's crazy the amount of things that happened that worked out in my favor ... all of the little miracles that allowed me to live. I can't even say the gratitude that I have. Thank God, and all the angels who were there for me."
He'll show his gratitude today at Mount Sinai St. Luke's Hospital in New York City, where he's gathering everyone who helped save his life, from doctors to good Samaritans. With the national news media there, LaPak will use the opportunity to educate people about emergency response.
He plans to donate portable defibrillators to "as many places as possible" and continue to do public appearances about the importance of learning CPR. He was recently certified.
"In the past, if I saw someone on the ground, I'd have second thoughts and doubts (about helping). Since this happened, I wouldn't even hesitate. Based on what I've been given, I would intervene at a moment's notice. It makes all the difference," he said. "If any of those 100 people didn't do exactly what they were supposed to do, I'd be dead."
LaPak has no memory of that fateful morning in August, something he considers a godsend.
He only remembers being brought out of a five-day, drug-induced coma and opening his eyes to a room full of doctors and family members. The doctors asked him what time it was, and he looked at the clock and said the correct time. Next they asked him to name everyone in the room. He did, joking about his son's scruffy new beard and asking why his daughter wasn't in Alaska since she'd been vacationing there until she got the call about her father.
"It was like, 'Oh God, he's back,'" said his wife, Renee. "We and the staff were crying, and chuckling about some of the things he was saying."
No one had been laughing in the five days before. They'd been camped out in the hospital, reeling in shock and preparing for the worst. At one point, they discussed funeral arrangements.
Renee LaPak, who had moved from Vernon Hills to New York just six weeks earlier, said she kept thinking about something Pastor Joel Osteen said, and it gave her strength during those dark hours.
"He said, 'The doctors have their reports, but God is the one who's going to give the final decision. God's going to decide.' It's true," she said. "It's only by the grace of God he's alive. It just wasn't his time."
Chris LaPak's best friend and running partner, Bonnie Russo, also felt a greater force at work.
"I literally witnessed over 30 miracles happen in a short time span," she said. "There are events that occurred that seem inconsequential, yet when examined - to me - is the universe at play."
Dr. Eyal Herzog, the director of Mount Sinai St. Luke's Cardiac Care Unit, who treated LaPak, believes a flawless "system approach" is the reason he beat the incredible odds.
"The people in the field were so good, they conducted it like a textbook chain of survival. From the soldier in the field to the expert captain in the hospital," he said.
What prevented LaPak's brain tissue from being damaged was the use of therapeutic hypothermia - an advanced therapy that reduced his body temperature to 91.4 degrees, Herzog said.
In hindsight, Chris LaPak wished he hadn't let normal stress tests fool him into a false sense of security that his heart was functioning well and he was outrunning his genetics. He now said he should have requested the dye test that shows specifics about the heart.
"Sometimes insurance companies won't allow that (dye) testing if you don't have a bad stress test. I should have demanded that kind of test with my kind of genetics," he said. "I felt like I was Superman, like I was bulletproof. And it just wasn't true."
Since August, LaPak has had heart surgery and a defibrillator implanted.
Many of LaPak's friends and family members have since booked doctor appointments and heart tests. Russo said she no longer assumes cardiac problems are only for unhealthy and overweight people.
"If that can happen to Chris, what about the things I've been ignoring?" she said. "What people can learn from this is ... just be in the know and pay attention."
Dead: LaPak will gather his lifesavers today to say thank you