Tanner News

Runners know it takes a lot of heart to finish a big race — which seems fitting for 64-year-old runner Robert Blakemore: having a strong heart is something he knows all about.

About two years ago, Blakemore was a Tanner Heart Care patient. Since then, he has been healthy enough to participate in a list of races, including the inaugural Carrollton Half Marathon as a relay team member and in the AJC Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta.

On Feb. 16, 2020, he finished the Mercedes Benz Half Marathon in Birmingham, Alabama.

This race was one of his best yet.

The race was such a milestone because Blakemore not only set a personal best for himself by running the half marathon in under three hours — an outstanding feat unto itself — but also because the journey leading up to him even being able to run the race is nothing short of remarkable: he had just completed his best race 18 months after experiencing a sudden cardiac event that threatened to end his running days for good.

It happened — out of nowhere — one morning in August 2018.

Blakemore had finished a treadmill workout at City Station Fitness in Carrollton, like he had many times before. Only moments after steeping down from the machine, he collapsed to the floor.

City Station trainers jumped into action, and noticing that his pulse had stopped, they retrieved one of the facility’s automated external defibrillator (AED) machines to apply to his chest to try and restart his heartbeat.

Seconds later, emergency responders arrived, and Blakemore was rushed to the emergency room at Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton, where he received an emergency heart catherization and stenting procedure from interventional cardiologist Shazib Khawaja, MD, to restore the blood flow to his heart.

Dr. Khawaja is a board-certified interventional cardiologist with Tanner Heart & Vascular Specialists and the medical operations leader for Tanner Heart Care.

He found that Blakemore had gone into cardiac arrest due to a blockage in a coronary artery, a condition caused by a buildup of waxy plaque in the artery.

When a coronary artery becomes blocked, oxygen-rich blood cannot freely circulate to the heart. The condition is called atherosclerosis and can be caused by fats, calcium and cholesterol that collects in the arteries.

Without that blood flow, the heart can’t function properly, causing pain, pressure, nausea and other symptoms that often accompany a heart attack. Sometimes, as in Blakemore’s case, it can lead to cardiac arrest, in which the heart stops beating altogether. And in the worst cases, it leads to death.

There are more than 350,000 cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest that happen every year in the United States. Having access to an AED or knowing how to administer CPR is critical and may save a person’s life in the event they experience cardiac arrest.

Had it not been for the swift action of the staff at City Station Fitness, the rapid response of the emergency responders and the outstanding emergency heart care he received at Tanner’s nearby chest pain center, Blakemore might not be alive today to share his story.

These days Blakemore is “all go,” and says he remains immensely grateful for everyone who cared for him that day.

“I can only say thank you again for the quick response and phenomenal care I received at Tanner,” said Blakemore, praising Tanner’s emergency department, ICU and Tanner Heart Care’s rehabilitation and heart care teams.

Thanks to them, he’s back to his regular running routine and training at City Station Fitness. He also works out with the West Georgia Track Club and takes part in the Move It Mondays walk-to-jog program with Tanner’s Get Healthy, Live Well.

“I am one of the people who really enjoy running,” said Blakemore, who now averages about 20 miles of running a week. “I truly appreciate that everyone did what they did to not only save my life, but to give me my life back — the way it was before the cardiac episode.”