38 Minutes Without a Pulse… How is Cory Alive & Well? | Cory | 012 - When You Look

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
And this guy was in cardiac arrest for 38 minutes for just
us. Now he has a pulse.
There's probably not going to bea good outcome.
Welcome to When You Look, where ordinary people share their
extraordinary experiences and you get to decide, was it
coincidence or God? Gentlemen, welcome to When You

(00:21):
Look. Super excited to have each of
you guys here for this incredibly unique story related
to Corey. Thanks again for being on
everybody. Pleasure.
Thank. You.
Awesome. Well, for those that are
listening and certainly for those that can see, we've got a
whole host of folks on this particular episode.
And the reason for that is, is that all of these folks were

(00:44):
involved in the story that centers upon Corey.
So we're going to get to that story here in just a second, but
we'll start first with intros and specifically with Corey.
So, Corey, tell us a little bit about yourself.
All right. Thanks, Mick.
My name is Corey Eubanks. I'm married to Paula, and we
live in Georgia. And I'm the person that this

(01:07):
episode is about. And I'm excited to be here.
And I can't wait to hear the stories that everybody has to
tell. And some of it may be new to me.
Some of them I've probably heard.
But anyway, I'm really excited to be here today.
Yeah. Awesome.
Well, super grateful to have youon the show here, John with an H
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I'm John. John Corey, I was the first

(01:28):
person on the scene. You could say that.
I mean, I was. As the scene developed, I was
there. Yeah.
Raced bicycles for over 30 years.
Not really active now but still enjoyed riding.
Eric, tell us a little bit aboutyourself.
Eric Garcia from Marietta, GA. I've been cycling, gosh, for

(01:51):
eight years. This was what, the 4th, 4th year
into it? So how was one of the later
arrivals then? I actually called the 911 for
Corey. Awesome.
Right on. OK, John, without an H Tell us a
little bit about yourself. Yeah.
So I'm John S I'm an avid cyclist.

(02:15):
I was lucky enough to be a part of this event.
I'm glad we were there. Sorry we were there, but glad we
were there to, you know, lend a hand.
And, yeah, it's really great to see everybody again and, you
know, reconnect the dots. And because I tell you, 4 years
is a long time, and it's hard toremember all the details.

(02:36):
All right. Thanks, John.
Glad to have you here. Matt, Tell us a little bit about
yourself. Hey there.
My name is Matt Lassiter. I'm currently living in Nolan,
Virginia, near DC. I'm an avid cyclist.
I've been cycling for about 5 or6 years.
The Helen Grand Fondo event was my first cycling event and since
then I've been hooked, been doing bike races and trying to

(02:59):
stay in shape to compete with the fast group rides in and
Virginia. And it's great to be back here
and see Corey. All right, Dan, tell us a little
bit about yourself. Hey, next.
Thanks, Dan Funk. I'm out in Colorado.
I've been riding bikes for decades and been riding bikes
for decades with a lot of the guys on this call today and will

(03:23):
forever be connected to everybody on this call today
based on the story we're going to tell.
So happy to be here and excited to be a part of it.
Evan, tell us a little bit aboutyourself.
So hi, my name is Evan. Like we said before, I'm excited
to see some familiar faces and and meet some people that like
John said, four years is a long time.
So memories A. Little fuzzy, but yeah, the

(03:47):
Grand Fondo and Helen was my first and unlike Matt I was not
bit by the bug. That was a challenge for me and
I have not ridden bicycles much since.
But I had a great. Time and yeah, excited for
today. Awesome.
Well, thanks for being here, man.

(04:09):
Andy and Shad, tell us a little bit about you guys.
So I'm Andy. I'm not an avid bicycle rider at
all. I was one of the first
responders. I was the paramedic that was
working only how an ambulance onthe day of the incident.
That's about it. Yeah, my name's Shed.

(04:33):
I was actually on the fire truckthat responded with Andy to to
Corey's call. But yeah, super excited to be
here, kind of see see how this unfolds.
Gents, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Yeah, So my name is Gents. At the time of the race, yeah, I
think I was about, yeah, late 30s, we'll call it at that.

(04:54):
And so I've been cycling at thatpoint.
I've been cycling I would say for about two years, something
that during COVID, my brother dragged me into, you know, just
to spend some time together. Little did I know just how much
pain and suffering I would go with him and those bike races.
But relatively new cyclists. I, I would say I'm, I'm not an

(05:16):
avid cyclist. I'll, I'll probably do it once a
month or so. But yeah, just really enjoy all
the everything that comes aroundthe events.
Thanks, everybody. This is a unique one because not
only do we have so many folks that were involved in this
incident, but me, the host here,Mick, I was actually involved in
this as well. So I was on this trip, which was

(05:36):
a cycling trip that included Evan and Matt and Dan in from
Colorado and then Sean and, and one other guy up from Florida
for all of us to meet to ride the Helen Grand Fondo, which was
slated for April 18th, 2021. So we're going to jump into

(05:57):
April 18th, 2021 for everybody. As a reminder, we're
approximately a year into COVID and that meant for these larger
outdoor events that they were one just coming back because
almost all of them have been canceled for the remainder of
2020. And as they came back, they were

(06:19):
coming back in a slightly different format.
So the example that was applicable to all of us was that
instead of a mass start that a grand fondo like this would be
meaning hundreds of riders all grouped together in a starting
area and then the the starting bell or the starting gun goes
off at a particular time of day.In this case, all of the riders

(06:42):
were being paced out by waves and so the medio which was what
me and the group that are many of the group that was on here,
which was the middle distance that we were doing for 60 plus
miles that did not start any earlier than 9:00 AM and our
group was slated for a 915 wave.We ended up leaving around that

(07:08):
time and Dan will end up sharinga bit more of those details, but
that timing really does play a lot into this.
So before we get into the actualstart of the event, Corey, let's
turn it over to you. Give us a little bit of back
story of what kind of put you atthat Helen Grand Fondo and how
this was a bit of a, of a, a different type of scenario than

(07:31):
one you were usually in. All right.
So I'll kind of give you some a little bit of family background
first. So I have, we have three kids
and now there are 3331 and 27. So back in 2017, we were getting
our youngest one off to college and me and Paul and my wife, we

(07:51):
were like, well, what do we do now?
You know, are we going to stay in this big house we're in on
the golf course? Are we going to sell it?
What are we going to do? So we did some research, did
some looking around and talking about it.
We decided we wanted to buy a motorhome.
So we bought a motorhome, a 40 foot motorhome, and we built a
car to tow behind it. And we sold our house in
Peachtree City, which is South of Atlanta, and we sold

(08:13):
everything that we owned. So we got rid of everything
basically. And we hit the road travelling
after we got him off to college.So we had been on the road
travelling all over the country for roughly 4 years.
And we were coming back to the Atlanta, the Atlanta area
because our middle son who had gotten married while we were on
the road, was having his first child.

(08:35):
So we were back in the Atlanta area for that, for the birth of
our second grandchild. And we also had to have some
work done on the motorhome over in Alabama.
So we dropped it off in Alabama,drove back to Atlanta and stayed
at my mother in It's, it's very nice place.

(09:06):
So they had a house there. So we decided we would just go
out there and stay for like a week or two and just kind of
take it easy and, and just kind of relax, even though I was
still working at the time. So we did that and on the first
week on the, and of course I took my road bike and my gravel
bike up there because I travel with that everywhere.
I, I ride all over the place. So, so I did that.

(09:28):
So the 1st, the Friday of that week, I was just looking online,
I saw this thing called the Helen Gran Fondo.
I wasn't sure exactly what that was, but I looked at it and I
was like, that looks interesting.
I'm right here next to it. So why not just register for it?
So you know, I registered for iton Friday when the race was I
think, I think that year was on Sunday morning, I believe.

(09:52):
So it's really kind of a last minute thing from my
perspective. So I thought, yeah, that'll be
fine. I can, you know, do that and
round the line in pretty good shape.
I might do well, I don't know. So anyway, I signed up for it
and so Saturday, I always take the day off before, like a race
like that. So I took Saturday off, but we
went and hiked up Mount Yona, which is right outside of Helen

(10:13):
as well. And if you've ever been to Mount
Yona, you know, it's kind of a strenuous hike.
And you know, I had no problem doing that at all.
I had no issues. I had no symptoms, nothing.
Nothing was going on in my physical body.
So, you know, we went home that night and went to sleep.
I woke up the next morning fairly early.
I, from what I remember, I fixedbreakfast for myself.

(10:36):
I drove over to Helen by myself with my bike.
I remember checking in at the registration tent and I, I
remember when I checked in, theywere like, we don't have any
more T-shirts. And I was like, oh really?
You can't give me a T-shirt? I wanted to get a T-shirt, so I
didn't get a T-shirt. But anyway, I remember checking
in and from that point on, everything for the next week is

(11:01):
was just a blur to me. I had no idea that any of that
had happened to me. Unless of course, my wife told
me that that happened and I found out from other people that
happened that this incident happened.
So that's kind of a little bit of background on how we ended up
up there and how I registered for the race and you know, how I
showed up for the race and and whatnot.

(11:22):
So yeah, I'll certainly give some more details later on, but
that's just kind of my my back story at this.
Point. Yeah, that's great.
And that's super helpful. So John, with an H, why don't
you tell us what you were up to that morning kind of leading up
to the start of the Grand Fondo?And for all of the folks that
are listening to this, a Grand Fondo is a really interesting

(11:42):
type of ride. And it's originally birthed in
Europe and it's a scenario whereit is a race, which is why Corey
is referencing a race, but it isalso a ride.
And so if there's a race within a ride essentially, so a a
complete race is not what it is,but there are timed segments
inside of it and the cumulative time for those multiple time

(12:05):
segments is the actual race. And so that's what Corey is
describing when he's talking about a race.
And then there were folks like me who were not planning to
race, race and be competitive inthat race, but instead
ultimately being there to have the enjoyment of the overall
ride with some of those time segments.
But Jonathan, each talk us through what was going on for

(12:28):
you that morning and and what leads into you being there
riding. OK, well first of all, I wasn't
supposed to be there. I had originally thought I would
do a motorcycle track day at Rode Atlanta.
I was late in registering. All of the run groups were full.
However, my wife Christy was planning to do this grand fondo

(12:53):
to ride with a good friend of ours, Erica, for her first ride
back after having a child. And so, you know, maybe the
night before, the day before, I said, OK, well, I guess I'll go
if I can't go do what I wanted to do at Rd.
Atlanta, I'll go. And registration was closed.
And so I said, you know what? I'll just I'll bandit the ride.

(13:16):
I don't need to do. I don't need the support.
I'll just, I'll just ride up theroad and then when the group
comes by, I'll just get in with the group.
So, yeah. So that, that morning, you know,
we, we drive from Brevard, that's where we live down to
Helen. Get out, you know, do the normal
thing before a bike event, you know, get the, make sure the

(13:39):
bikes are good. And then I, I say to my friends,
all right, I'm going to ride up the road, you know, because
they're, I know they're going off in waves.
What I didn't realize was that Ihad ridden, I was slightly
familiar with the area, having ridden around there a couple
times, but I didn't realize thatthat's where the time site that
I was going up to the time segment.

(13:59):
So I thought I'd ride, you know,a mile, mile and a half up the
road, kind of do a little housekeeping before, you know,
however long of a ride that was going to be.
And then I knew that the next group would be this group.
And so I would just sort of absorb into that as they went
by. So, Eric, let's go to you.
Tell us what was going on with you that morning.
So a group of us went up, it wasfour of us all together. 2 of my

(14:21):
friends were riding the 100 mileversion and gents, he and I were
doing this, the shorter version,which we always do.
And I remember it was freezing. I'm like, I don't even know if I
want to do this. Maybe I just want to stay in the
car, have some hot chocolate. I'm like, let's all right, let's
go. So remember this freezing,
shivering. And I said, we, we got to do it.
Let's do it. Put on our arm warmers.

(14:43):
I don't know, layers of of everything.
We got pumped up and, and we just started pedaling and I
remember it was, it was just a beautiful, clear, crisp morning.
And it's just, we were really pumped up to start doing it.
Once we, once they, we, we launched off everywhere, the
endorphins started going. We were really, really excited,

(15:04):
you know, razzing on each other the whole way up.
And, and that was really the start of the morning.
But it, it was close to saying, let's just stay in the car and
we'll go when it warms up. But but we did muscle through.
I'm glad we did so that. Morning.
I remember we got up really extremely early because we live
in the Marietta area, so it's just north of Atlanta.

(15:27):
So for us to get to Helen, it's I think I want to say it's about
an hour and a half drive. So Eric and I were just sitting
in the car trying to stay warm and just, you know, goofing
around and trying to get warmed up and just get ready for the
race. I hadn't trained much for this
race, so I just knew I had to bring everything I had to make
it through it. So yeah, it was pretty

(15:48):
relatively relaxing morning. I'd just come back from a 10 day
vacation, so I was in a good place.
All right, well, Dan, give us a sense.
Give the listeners a sense, because in this case I really
was there. But describe for kind of the
whole crew of us what was going on that morning and what led us

(16:09):
to be where we were when we were.
Yeah. It's funny, Eric, that you say
it was a cold day coming from Colorado.
It was definitely bright and crisp.
And I felt like it was unseasonably warm compared to
what I was used to leading into leading into that ride.
So. But yeah, we we were there for a
cycling trip mixed. Like you said, there's a group
of us that have done this for a long time.

(16:31):
We had some new folks that had joined the ride with Matt and
Evan and Chad who's not on the call today, but just a a great
opportunity for a great group ofguys to come together and have
some memory making experiences. So we had written three days
prior, two days prior to the trip.
I think we all flew in or drove in, you know, the previous week,

(16:53):
Thursday ish, we rode on Friday,we rode on Saturday.
And the Helen Grand Fondo was kind of like the the queen
stage, so to speak, for our event.
So instead of driving down, we stayed in Helen.
We we hopped on our bikes and wehad a very fast decent down the
hill into town. And, you know, just, I think

(17:14):
like, like John with an H said, like, you know, you have this
energy around the, the the beginning of of the race.
There's lots of people there. There's tons going on.
You know, it's the first time we've raced during COVID.
So that was always like a littlewhat's what's it going to be
like? But yeah, we all kind of threw a
leg over the bike and jumped on when our wave and and started

(17:37):
heading up the road. And I just remember getting into
that first time section, you know, and thinking like, all
right, here we go, like game on.It's time to time to start to
ride and and then everything kind of changed pretty
drastically at that point. Yeah, thanks.
I'm just going to add to that. So I recall specifically that we
were the 9:15 wave. So as I was talking about this

(18:01):
earlier, the media, which was that middle distance couldn't
start any earlier than 9:00 AM. So our entire group had
registered for a 915 wave. And as Dan was just talking
about, we were, we were, we wereway up above the, the town of
Helen. And I mean, it was like a rocket

(18:22):
ship straight down the road, like 20% grades down.
So it took us a split second to get down to the start line.
And realistically it took us maybe 5 minutes.
But we left the house at 9 and got down to the start area where
we would need to pick up timing chips.
And of course, everybody other than John with an H who was

(18:44):
banditing the ride would have been doing the same type of
thing, right, getting their their timing ship.
Because again, there's some timesections in this.
So we're anticipating due to dueto COVID and all of the wave
starts, that there will be a lotof people, but that there will
be things like social distancingand that there will be a lot of
time required in order to get those timing ships.

(19:07):
So we left at 9:00. We're down there at nine O 5 for
a 915 wave start and it took us all of about 30 seconds to get
our timing chip because there was nobody there.
All the other people had left inthe 9:00 wave or the wave before
us or whatever was. But we're thinking this is going

(19:27):
to take a while and it doesn't take long at all.
Literally, we are then sitting in the staging area, this whole
group of us and a handful of other people that we didn't know
or recognize, and we're looking at each other.
Conan, are we going to, are we going to sit here and to Eric's
point, kind of freeze for another 7 or 8 minutes until

(19:49):
it's 9:15? Or should we just go because
there wasn't any type of marshalling that was preventing
us from going. So we all just decided let's
just roll. We got everything we need.
And again, I think that's reallyimportant, that timing.
So we're supposed to go off at 9:15 and realistically we're

(20:10):
probably rolling around nine O 8.
So we then start rolling and at this point, kind of everybody is
basically rolling. I think Eric, you're on the road
at this point, John with an H. We know that you're on the road.
And so other than Andy and Shad,we're all kind of on the road up

(20:31):
to and including Corey. So Annie and Chad, let's just go
to you guys real quick. What were you guys up to that
morning in the fire station? So we usually start our day in
Cleveland at our main headquarters station.
We check off our trucks and stuff like that and then we go

(20:52):
to our outlying stations. Usually they like this to be in
our zone. So in the Helen zone, we get
there around 9 O clock, we get all of our food that we're going
to eat for the shift and then wejust kind of start hanging out.
And Child was working with the fire department that day and we

(21:13):
were talking about the race and just kind of doing our normal
routine for a Sunday morning. Yeah, one thing I remember
specifically was when we're kindof coming into work up there is
as we're going into Helen over there on the backstreet where
the race started, we see all thetents and all like the start and
the finish line, all that. And our first thought is, oh

(21:35):
crap, what's going to happen today?
You know, we, we anticipate are we were told ahead of time when
the races or certain things are going on.
And so we knew it was happening.But when we go, we see all the
people in all the cars. Our first thought is what's
going to happen, you know? Yeah, going to be a busy day at
work essentially, right? Never.

(21:58):
Know. Yeah, right.
Exactly. Hopefully not, but you never
know. OK.
So I think we're at the point inthe story where now everybody is
essentially on the road except for Andy and Shad.
But they're there, they're at the station.
And I want to kind of describe alittle bit about what happened
with a particular vehicle that was on the road when our group

(22:23):
was on the road. So who wants to take that from
our crew? Yeah.
So I recall as, as Mick alluded to, us being kind of by
ourselves in a smaller ride group and just starting to
begin. And I remember coming up on what
I believe was the time section because it was the first time we

(22:43):
felt like we saw like an official.
And I don't remember if you saw the motorcycle or what have you,
but it seemed legit. And as we were approaching that
section, I recall vividly A jacked up red pickup truck and a
Chevy pickup truck, kind of. Fly by our group and we were,

(23:04):
you know, we're a small group, but it was a number that takes
up the lane as as people who ride bikes know that it's it's
you know, you want to appear andbe visible on the road.
And I remember being past what felt like aggressively and, and

(23:24):
my initial reaction was to get pissed.
I was frustrated already, you know?
I was cold and didn't want to really be there that day, but I
was having fun. And that was an.
Aggressive pass and turn and so I remember rounding that turn to

(23:45):
then what appears like a truck parked in the middle of the road
diagonally and and a body layingon the ground with a group
already around it. So it was an interesting thought
of well, what just happened and and I remember being like, I
can't believe, you know, someonejust hit an A rider and then we

(24:11):
find out that that that's not the case.
So that was an interesting startto the to the race.
Yeah, I really appreciate how you describe that.
It, it definitely seemed like itwas a very, very aggressive
passing of us. And if I recall, it seemed as if
it was super unsafe because it was also around a corner, a
blind corner essentially. So this this particular driver

(24:35):
was giving us every bit of the signs of he or she didn't want
us on the road and and yet they play a really interesting role
here in just a second. So John H bring us up to speed,
pardon the pun, there on how things were going for you on the
road at this point. So I think that the.

(24:58):
Group that my friends were in, Ithink they left it nine O 5.
So I rolled up. I rolled off just before 9, you
know, nice easy warm up and get situated and everything.
And, and I, I position myself where I can see the group coming

(25:18):
from a distance and I see a group coming from the distance.
They're going slowly at that point.
And I just roll out into the into the lane or in near the
white line, figuring I'll just let them roll by.
And then, but as they get closer, that's this is where the
time segment starts, which I didn't realize, but once I saw

(25:40):
it, I was like, oh, that's what's going on.
And so the bunch turns into a pointy line.
And, you know, being somebody that's not officially on the
ride, I don't want to interrupt anybody who's, you know, has
certain goals for that ride. So I let the so the group comes
up to me. I'm probably rolling it like 12

(26:00):
miles an hour. I'm not sure how fast they're
going, but, and you know, I let probably 8 riders go by and I
noticed that's when it kind of fans out a little bit.
So, and there's a little gap. So I behind the 8th rider.
So I just slide in right behind that 8th rider, which as I've
learned is Corey. And so it's, it's not very long.

(26:24):
I, I, it's probably less than a minute.
And I, I'm, I'm watching the wheel in front of me and I see
that this person sort of backingoff and easing up and I'm like,
oh boy, you know, this is a guy that saw me come in and he
doesn't want people doing this. And I'm, I've, I've been in,

(26:47):
I've been here before, you know,I'm kind of getting ready to
just Sprint around him and, and play that game.
But, but as I'm sitting there and he's going more slowly and
more slowly and normally somebody that is going to do
what I'm anticipating to them todo, their body language will be
a little bit more animated. Corey's was not.

(27:08):
And it was a gradual slowing down, so much so that the group
kind of the rest of the bunch goes by and, and I, I, I can
tell something's wrong. So this is not, this is not some
guy that just wants to make sureI'm not screwing up with his
time segment and something's wrong.

(27:28):
And so I roll up next to him andI look and he's just looking
straight ahead and almost, you know, and barely kind of
pedaling and, and stiff, you know, kind of like held in a
position. And I, I'm talking to, to him
and I'm saying, asking him if he's all right.
And I said, let's, let's pull over.

(27:50):
Something's, something's wrong. Let's, let's pull over and
recover. And you know, I don't know what
has, I don't know what's happening with this person.
You know, did he take like some sort of bad supplements or like
drink too much coffee or something?
I, I have no idea, You know, like, because the effort has
started, the heart rate goes up.And, and so we, we kind of pull

(28:13):
over and we sit down on the sideof the road kind of just off of
the white line, but still right at the edge of the of the
pavement and with our feet down kind of down the hill with a
ditch. And I'm, I'm talking to Corey
trying to, you know, kind of figure out what has led him to

(28:36):
this point, you know how he's feeling.
And actually it's interesting. Corey doesn't remember any of
this, but but he was responding to me and he was responsive and
he was talking to me and he, he said he felt light headed.
And I said, well, we're, I'm, we're going to sit here until

(28:56):
you feel better. And I'm not going to leave.
We're going to even if we have to just ride back, we're going
to, you know, I'm going to stay here with you.
So don't worry about that. And, you know, I'm sure I was
yammering about something else. And then he just leans back,

(29:18):
head on the, you know, head on the pavement.
Fortunately, he's wearing his helmet.
And I I'll admit, I looked and Iwas like, what is going on?
This is not this is not it. It turned the situation turned
from, oh, this is somebody that's not feeling well.

(29:40):
And, you know, and this is he's going to feel better, like we're
going to his heart rate's going to come down.
Whatever is going on, his heart rate's going to come down And
and we'll ride. I know I'm I, you know, I miss
riding with my friends, but we'll see what happens.
And to it goes from something that's minor to being like, Oh

(30:02):
my gosh, this guy has a real problem.
And so I guess we can think about this.
If the group, if the group I integrated in left, two or three
minutes before your group, your group gets passed by an
aggressive red truck. We've been sitting on the side
of the road. Corey passes out or loses

(30:25):
consciousness. I look, I see that truck coming.
I get up, go out in the middle of the road, hail him down.
You know, I'm literally in the middle of the road because he
wanted to go around me, but he stopped.
I wasn't going to let him not stop.
And you know, I, I'll admit, I didn't know what to say.

(30:48):
I was like, we're part of an event.
There's probably an ambulance intown.
I don't think there's any cell coverage here.
Can you contact somebody at thatevent?
Can you do it? Like, do you have a phone?
Can you do this? And I think while I'm saying
that, which is kind of interesting, so Evans probably

(31:08):
like, Oh my God, there's a guy arguing with the guy in the
truck and the guy in the ground.He's probably giving him the
right. But I see this group coming and,
you know, unfortunately, I mean,with, you know, full respect to
the driver who was aggressive tothe bunch behind, he I think

(31:30):
tried to help. I don't know what he ultimately
did, but he tried, which is, youknow, refreshing.
But seeing that group was like, OK, here's some other people
that can help. And the relief when they came up
and some of them said they had some medical training was like,

(31:52):
Oh my gosh, incredible. All the while, Corey is laying
there. I mean, it was probably a
minute, you know, after he passed out.
I get up, flag the guy down. I see the group coming and you
know, I'll, I'll admit that thatpart of it is a little fuzzy to

(32:14):
me, like what happened. I forget what I said.
I, you know, I guess you're, youknow, you were all in, we're all
in bike costumes. So when I see you on the call
now, I don't exactly recognize you, but about what happened in
that point because I, I did not know what to do.
I've taken CPR and that kind of emergencies, but in that moment

(32:36):
I didn't know what to do all. I'll ever remember is just
seeing John and and Corey and and pretty much exactly how John
just described it. Just Corey being, I don't know
if I'm using the word sketchy isthe right term to use it, but
just very unusually wobbly all over the place.

(32:56):
I immediately knew something is not right.
And being the type of person that I am, I'm like, Eric, we
are, we're let's hang out, let'shang out behind these guys for a
little bit. Let's just see what's going on.
That's just really, that's kind of what I remember.
And then obviously things went South or whatever you want to
call it right after that. But just as they pulled over and

(33:20):
they sat down exactly like they described it on the side of the
road. I remember Corey just kind of
like his, his, his head kind of being hunched down and him
holding the bike and kind of almost looking frustrated at the
bike, drops the bike and then just bam, falls backwards on his
head. And as we, as we pull up, we

(33:41):
stop. That happens.
And then just immediately know something's not right.
And then what did you do? So we get off the bike and we I
immediately go and get like above him And then he's still
kind of breathing a little bit. It's slowing down.
And then just having known and seen enough stuff, I just knew
it wasn't a good sign. And I do remember him almost

(34:04):
snoring a little bit before it all stopped.
And the color, like the color inhis face a little bit that was
red from, you know, climbing hisblood flow Just immediately that
color disappeared almost instantly.
But he was pale and and I knew Iwas like, we've got to get to
moving on this guy. And I think that's when I kind

(34:26):
of snapped at Eric Colt 911 now.And I know John was in that in
the in the immediate vicinity right there.
And him. I think we found out that he
didn't know him and and I remember getting down and trying
to take his helmet off and he hehad one of those helmets, I
guess had never had that kind ofjust it comes off.
Maybe it's a little bit of a weird slide and I didn't know

(34:48):
how to do it. So I remember John helping me
take that off. And honestly, we just started
doing chest compressions immediately.
And one of the things that I'd remember is why we kept going
and I kept fighting for him and even trying to hunt him down is
the reaction his body gave to methe moment we started doing

(35:09):
chest compressions, almost as ifhis color was slightly coming
back. He was, it was a good sign.
It gave me the hope of, hey, we need to keep going.
So Eric, I, I think we should probably shift to.
You so I believe I, I, I was there right before you all had
been there. So gents and I pulled, pulled up

(35:30):
front, right, because we, we sawCorey at the time sitting
upwards and he had it. We said that something's not
right. Let's let's pull over, say hey.
And I believe the two of them were talking and we, we were I
was by my bike and I remember just sitting and seeing him sit
there said I think he looks alright.
He looks like he's responsive. Then suddenly when I saw him
like lurch back like that, suddenly slammed his head into

(35:50):
the ground. Oh, oh, I said let's get over
that. We, we got to do something right
away. And I believe that's when the
car came out and the whole 9 yards.
And then I remember against wentover there right away.
There was a. Couple people there at the time,
right? I remember he had his, pulled
his sunglasses off right away and put the arm down his, Cory's
mouth to, not to swallow his tongue as they were trying to

(36:13):
keep him because he was compulsing a little bit.
And then I, I just, and all that, I think you guys all
started to roll up because I remember said they said, oh,
he's, he's unresponsive, somewhat a doctor, somewhat a
doctor. And all of this was going on at
the same time. And then I remember looking on
my phone. I said we got to call 911.

(36:33):
There was no service. So I remember just in the middle
of the road stopping cars because there was cars was
pretty busy, right? All these cars stopped.
Then finally I got to a spot andsaid T-Mobile Connect and I got
through 911 and I was like on the other side up up in the hill
a little bit. Anyway, I got 911.
I don't know who it was and they're like, where are you?

(36:54):
And I said Helen Germantown. I don't know where to tell you.
We're in a race probably a mile,2 miles up the road.
A person needs help to send some.
I was like yelling at them because they they were trying to
explain where you were. I said I don't know where I am.
Find me. We're in Helen.
We're on a grand fond of us. Send someone right away.

(37:15):
I was, I probably said a couple of colorful words.
I said, you got to get someone here.
And I don't know who it was, butthat's when I, I was on the
phone with them for a while because I guess they were
tracking my location. And then I could hear sirens in
the distance, which I believe was the fire truck or the
ambulance at the time. And, and then we all came to

(37:36):
quarry. And then at that point everyone
was doing chest compressions, holding his head, holding his
airway clear. Remember doing that at one time,
holding the airway open and theneveryone's doing rotations of,
of of that. And it just after that, it was
all blur. It seemed like everyone was just
switching, switching positions, doing the compressions, keeping

(37:57):
them going. And we were checking for a pulse
and we're like someone said, there's no pulse, there's no
pulse. Got to keep doing it.
And everyone just kept on pushing, pushing, pushing.
And there was really, it was scary at that point he was gone.
But I said, and someone said, I believe it was someone who would
with a medical background, you got to keep his blood flowing,
got to keep his blood flowing. And we all just kept doing it.

(38:20):
And then the EM TS showed up andI remember put him on the
stretcher with the, the, the with the machine.
And what stands out to me vividly was he's got no pulse.
And at that point I'm just like freaked out.
I felt like blood rush on my head.
We just saw someone die. But.
It was just I, everyone, it was just a blur and we were all

(38:41):
would just come in. I know at that point you guys
were all there and it was, it was pretty wild at that point,
but something else was taken over because we were all just
doing it. Let's rewind a tiny bit.
It sounds like you had run up a hill in order to get cell
service. Yes, because one, once I saw

(39:02):
him, went back, went back, we ran up to went up to him check
them out and I picked up, I looked at my phone and said
we've got to get 911 right away.And there was no cell phone
service because I remember it was off of a graded Rd. where he
was, everyone was. And then across the road, it was
a slightly elevated. I remember running across the
road as I was stopping traffic and there was a little

(39:23):
embankment. I kind of walked up in a little
bit and cycling shoes trying to.I remember sliding and suddenly
I had service. Like the bars just shot up and I
just called 911 and it connectedand I just stood still because I
couldn't want to move. Yeah, it was just, but there was
no service anywhere. But there was this little notch.

(39:45):
Somehow we had service, which was wild.
Yeah, Dan, let's cut to you herebecause I am recalling you and I
essentially like sort of almost shouting at each other, speaking
very loudly with each other about.
You were like, I'll try and makea a 911 call.

(40:09):
And I think I said something like I can't get any service or
I don't have any service, so I said I was going to go back.
Do you recall any of the specifics there for for what was
going on for you? Yeah, yeah.
I mean it just like Evan had said, like we just come around a
corner. You see this scene unfolding in
front of us and it's just it's not chaotic yet, but it just has

(40:30):
this feeling of chaos, right? There's like a lot going on and
the truck is there. And once we realized like, all
right, the truck, the guy didn'thit Corey, thank God.
But something else is seriously wrong saying that.
Everybody said like looking at her phones, no service at all.
And I can't remember if I talkedto him or if somebody else

(40:52):
talked to the driver in the truck, but I remember him being
one person amongst many who actually had service.
And it's like he's like a local guy with probably a local cell
phone plan. And miraculously he's the guy,
right? The guy that everyone is so
angry with, right? Not 5 minutes prior.

(41:14):
He is the guy that has the bars to connect.
And Eric, I didn't know that youhad called too, but I got I just
remember thinking like, thank God this guy is here.
And despite what we feel right now or have felt more recently
about him, that he is here to help us in this situation.
If he played a very pivotal role, I'm sure there was

(41:36):
multiple people who made that call or attempted to make that
call and get help on the way. But yeah, it was it was just it
was like an immediate change andfeeling.
I remember feeling towards this man that had kind of buzzed us
in his truck. And then from there, it's like
the scene unfolded. You know, John and Matt, you

(41:57):
know, we're going to hear from, you know, just jumped into
action. And I just remember staying
clear of that entire scene, right, and letting those guys do
what they needed to do. And, you know, we're in the
middle of this time section. So everybody that's at this race
is like ready to go. I mean, they're like, they have
no idea to come on this corner. They see this scene and I would

(42:18):
say, you know, probably more than 50% of people either stop
or at least made intent to ask, like, hey, is everything OK?
Do you guys need help? And it was like, I remember
thinking, like, the last thing we need is more people here.
Like, we have enough people to do what we needed to do.
And I just remember telling people like this, this guy's not
responsive. Please pray for him as you head

(42:40):
up the road. And, and that was it.
And it's like that felt like so inconsequential, frankly, at the
time because I'm seeing guys do chest compressions and giving
Corey CPR, administering just non-stop, right, with no, no
reprieve. I'm just standing there thinking
like, I'm just going to tell people, hey, I think we have

(43:01):
this under control. But Priest, please pray for this
man who is clearly in a in a place that we don't want him to
be. Yeah.
Well, now John without an H and Matt, we're going to go to you
in a quick second here. And Evan, we're certainly going
to hear from you also. But I want to give you guys a
quick sense for for where I had gone just as part of this whole

(43:23):
thing, because it also relates to what Dan was just talking
about. And because I couldn't get a
cell call out to 911, I thought what we had just passed a course
Marshall right at the beginning of the time section.
That was that was minutes before.
I'm like, I'll race back there as fast as I can because in my

(43:45):
prior experience from other races and rides and fondos like
this, most of those course marshals would have a radio of
some sort. So my hope was I could get back
to that person quickly because nobody in aircrew.
So while, Eric, your call may have very well been actually
happening, since we didn't know each other, right, we weren't

(44:09):
communicating. So I have no idea.
And I don't have coverage. And I'm thinking to myself,
well, I've got Verizon. Verizon tends to work the best.
If Verizon isn't working, it's not working.
Nobody's got anything. I'll go back to the course
Marshall. Or at least that was all that
was the intention. So I raised back there as
quickly as I could. And I get there and I say to the

(44:29):
course Marshall, I'm like, somebody just got hit by a guy
in a giant red pickup truck. OK.
Because that's all the information that I had at that
point, which is we sort of all begin to have have begun to
explain is actually not correct.But I was saying to the course
Marshall, you got to send some help.

(44:50):
Do you have any radio? And he goes, no, I don't have a
radio. And I remember thinking to
myself, how do you not have a radio at an event like this?
And he's like, but I got a motorbike, so I'm like, get on
it. So he literally takes his like 4
stroke. I mean, it was literally like a
motocross kind of motorbike. It wasn't even like an enduro
type of thing from what I remember.
And he's like, all right, I'll go back.

(45:11):
And I was like, yeah, go back. So we're going to go to Evan to,
to kind of talk about his experience here in just a
second, just sort of broadly. And then I really want to get
into the meat of things with, with John and Matt.
But that guy leaves. And so I turn around and before
I get all the way back, I am passed by fire truck and

(45:34):
ambulance. So Evan, tell us what was going
on for you at this point before we hear from John and Matt.
Yeah, my experience was similar to to Dan's.
I'd say I wasn't very hands on. I I just remember rolling to the
scene and adrenaline's, you know, you get the adrenaline

(45:57):
dump, your heart rate goes and you.
Kind of just like locked in. And I remember being really,
really proud of my buddy Matt for just jumping straight in
like no hesitation, immediately stabilizing the neck.
I I have a. Picture of it because I remember
being like, all right, well, I'mgoing to snap a picture of this
truck, which I did. And then in the background you

(46:20):
see sort of what's unfolding and, and, and Matt's there
stabilizing the neck right thereon the white line on the edge
and seeing that, you know. Again, like dad said, a lot of
lot of bodies don't need more people in there.
It seemed like they had a good rotation going.
I excused myself. Corey was super blue and I've

(46:44):
been around death before, but I've never seen what I perceived
as a as a. A dead body.
I mean, that was overwhelming. So after that adrenaline dump
kind of wore off, I was super emotional and now I'm not
normally. That way I'm a big guy.
And I carry. Myself that, you know, largely I

(47:05):
guess, but I went to the, you know, embankment.
And just sat. There and felt very overwhelmed
and and and I'm not a praying man usually, but I felt
compelled to like ask for something whatever's out there

(47:26):
like I'm. We need help.
Here, and I remember that in crying and saying words and
another patron coming over and sitting with me and we just.
Talked and talked. Through it.
And said, you know. It's going to be all right.
We just prayed together. And I found, you know, comfort
in that It was it was a cool. Experience for me, being out of

(47:49):
my comfort zone in that space, knowing that's going on over
there and I can't help. So I'm going to just.
Stay out of the way, but it's interesting to hear other
perspectives on the on the on the event.
Yeah, well, thanks for filling us in.
OK so Matt and John without an Htalk us through how things went

(48:12):
down. Matt.
Well, why don't you go OK. So like everyone else, Evan was
saying, and we came around the corner and we first saw the
truck and Corey on the ground. So I'd, I'd had medical
experience, I was an ENT and I work in the operating room.

(48:33):
So, you know, doing CPR and being around patients that are
sick, unhealthy, dying is, you know, sort of more normal for me
than everyone else, unfortunately.
And so rolling onto the scene, we see Corey on the ground, a

(48:56):
truck and we don't know what happened.
And my first thought is, OK, he could have a neck injury.
And because we don't know if he fell off his bike got hit.
And so when I run over there andhold the C spine, because that's
that's what I know what to do. And we checked, I'm checking the

(49:18):
carotid pulse and I instruct someone else who I don't
remember who it was to check hisgroin to see if he had a femoral
pulse, which he had no pulse. And I think it was John who was
right there. I told John like we have to CPR
and John jumped in immediately and just started in CPR.
And from then it was basically tunnel vision.

(49:41):
I don't really remember who was there or what, you know, what
was going on, but it was I was basically just doing what, you
know, what I had learned how to do.
And I was holding his neck and trying to open his airway as
much as I could and directing, it sounds like, John, to start
with compression. So, John, tell us what that was
like. Yeah.

(50:02):
Well, I mean, honestly, I don't know if Matt wasn't there, if
we'd be here collectively. I mean, we needed somebody to
direct traffic. And, you know, I mean, I think
most of us are action oriented. But in that moment, you're just
so like stunned in the moment that you're not really sure what

(50:23):
to do. So you're looking for that, you
know, that commanding voice. And Matt was like, this is what
we need to do and blah, blah, blah.
And like, OK, so I want to backtrack.
I don't want to go too far down this, but two things about the
red truck. One, I think we would all agree
we left to the wrong conclusion about red truck guy cuz we all

(50:47):
had a perception of that. Then I do remember seeing the
interaction between John and thetruck guy and I was like, oh
it's on for sure. Not knowing that, you know,
Corey was in the state that he was in.
But I, I remember I he had ACB radio and I thought that was how
the connection got made. I was like, he could be the only

(51:10):
person left in America with the CB.
And I think that's how like how he made the connection and, and
Eric of course too. But I'm just saying like anyway,
red truck guy went from being a 0 to somewhat of a hero quickly.
I'm going to butt in. It looked like the group when

(51:32):
they saw the red truck guy with their body languages, like they
were ready to fight. Oh yeah, it was.
It was weird to see him. I was like, no, no, this guy's
actually stopped, Sorry. What happened was ready.
But yeah, that's just the that'slike the I just want to under
score that like the move from bad guy to maybe not so bad guy.
Right, 100%, yeah. So, you know, Matt, I think

(51:55):
directing traffic and you know what, and Corey and I were
actually talking the other day about this.
What, what's hard to appreciate is how physically demanding
administering CPR really is, youknow, so, you know, Eric took a
rotation. I'm sure a lot of people on this

(52:16):
call, Matt probably took a lot of people took rotations because
you just physically have about two to three minutes in you and
then, you know, you're maxed on your own effort and heart rate
because of how hard it is. And and then the other thing I
want to go back real quick to Evan's comment.
You know, there was, I think there was a lot of people in

(52:37):
that, especially as the, as the moment got longer, as we got
deeper into the situation and people were stopping, like there
was a lot of people that were very emotionally traumatized
would be the word I would use. I mean, people could see
trouble. And I think I I saw people head

(52:58):
back. They're like, we're not doing
this race. We're done like we're
emotionally not going to make this.
And I know we eventually had to make a conscious decision on
whether we wanted to continue, but there are a lot of people
that were really thrown. I think in that moment, you
know, that weren't a part of thewhole experience.

(53:20):
Tunnel vision that that Matt used was a a great experience.
You just kind of focus in on what you're doing in the moment
and you do it. Well, for you guys who did
compressions, let me just say that you did them the right way
because you broke my ribs. And from what I understand, if
you're doing chest compressions the right way, then that's what
happens because you got to put that kind of pressure on the

(53:41):
person to get their heart going or whatnot.
So. That's right.
You, you definitely did the right thing.
I'm not mad about that at all. I'm very thankful you did that.
So thank you, Matt and John and everybody else that did that,
Eric, Otherwise I wouldn't be here, I'm sure.
So thank you for that. All right, and then before we go
to Annie and Shad, let's actually confirm this.

(54:02):
Again, this is for Corey and forothers, right?
Who was actually doing chest compressions?
I know I I did. We all were.
OK. I think until the until the
machine came to do it. And then gents as well I.
Don't remember doing any chest compressions actually, because I
was just so focused on holding Corey's neck stable so I didn't

(54:24):
I think everyone John, Eric and Arthur, John y'all are just I
think y'all are just doing greatdoing chest compressions and
y'all you know yeah and and Ericwas just talking as well that
gents was also it sounds like soit.
Was. Yeah, and he also had. 4 of you.
Guys eyeglasses down Corey's mouth to keep his tongue down.
So I remember doing chest compressions and I so honestly,

(54:46):
I was probably the, I was the first one to make actual
physical contact with Corey for probably the first couple
minutes. And I remember Matt telling
everyone what to do now, becauseMatt had his head.
I remember that now. It was it is the airway open,
Airways open. He was watching everyone the
whole time and everyone was justgoing one after one.
It was like it was a rotation there.
I think there was more than thatwas on this call because it was

(55:08):
a long time and it's and it's. Yeah, it was it was constant and
and it was like everyone says tunnel vision, right?
Everyone just finished. Next person popped in.
There was no, no, no one skippeda beat.
We were just going and going andgoing.
I mean, people were exhausted just doing it, and something
kept us doing it because he had no pulse.

(55:29):
All right, Andy and Shad, we're going to go to you guys.
Give us a sense for how things went when you guys get the call,
whether that came from, as John was saying, the CB radio for the
last person in America or through the 911 call that Eric
got out. Take us from there.

(55:50):
All right, so we, we got the call through our 911 system and
when it was paged out, it was paged out as a cardiac arrest.
And I don't want to sound like like, I don't care, but when
it's paged out as a cardiac arrest, our sense is kind of

(56:11):
heightened a little more than they would for granny fallen.
I don't know if that sounds bad or what, but that kind of, you
know, put us a little, you know,a little peppermint step.
We got the call at 9:27 and we got on scene at 935 S 7.
What is that? 8 minutes.

(56:33):
Almost 8 minutes, yeah, of the of yo from the now one call now,
Yeah, I don't know how long prior to a call getting out that
y'all were doing CPR and then wehad to Lucas on 2 minutes after
we got on scene. So back up a little bit.

(56:54):
We were coming, we were in frontof the engine and when we kind
of get on a scene like that, we're going to kind of take over
a road, shut it down. We don't want cars coming back
and forth. We pulled up just past everybody
and I look and I see Corey laying on the ground and I'm and
the the partner that I had that day, I looked at him and I said

(57:15):
this guy's dead. I was like, we're working.
Nothing like he looked like death.
We get on scene and someone says, you know, we've been doing
CPR on them. I heard someone say that they
were a doctor. I guess we were just trying to

(57:37):
figure out like what transpired as far as did he start
complaining of chest pain, was anybody around was having
difficulty breathing, any kind of any kind of little bit of
information that we can use to help, I guess with our treatment
going forward. So we put them on the what they
call Lucas device, which is a, abox basically, and has a ponder

(58:02):
and it does continuous CPR for us without stopping.
I have not had that my entire career.
It is a lifesaver. Doing CPR for any amount of time
is not fun. But yeah, we just kind of rolled
up and I don't know how far you want me to get into it, but we

(58:23):
rolled up. I didn't think we were going to
be getting this person back at all.
Yeah, keep going. So it's kind of funny when we
got the call, like we said we were, we were in the Bay.
We had just honestly, we had just gotten to the station.
It wasn't probably 10 or 15 minutes before.
And if you know anything about our county, we're super busy all
the time with limited resources.And so truthfully, the fact that

(58:47):
there was an ambulance availablewhen y'all called within 10
minutes is a miracle in itself. Truthfully, because 9 times out
of 10 you would call and we wouldn't even be available.
You would have gotten an ambulance 30 minutes down the
road. And that happens with a.
Lot. So we happen to be in the Bay
just talking. We were, I think we're probably

(59:09):
talking about the race, what wasgoing on for the day.
And so when this call came out, like Andy said, it came out as a
cardiac arrest, unresponsive. And so we jumped in and took off
down the road, took us a few minutes to get there.
And I do remember, like Andy said, we shut the road down
because there was a there was traffic.
There was a lot of people there,from what I remember.

(59:32):
And then like Andy said, Corey was laying there and staying
that he looked like death. He was, he was as wide as the
lines painted in the road. He looked horrible.
So I remember we, we were getting information.
I do remember when we were finally able to put the Lucas on

(59:56):
at one point. I don't, I don't remember if
Corey's helmet was still on or off by the time we got there.
But I know when we started the Lucas a lot of times because
there's a piece that goes up behind his back.
And when we started somebody in Corey's a little bit of a
smaller, smaller guy compared tothe size that we typically put

(01:00:16):
on that machine. But his head would kind of start
hitting the back. And I think Matt said a second
ago that he was kind of. In that head holding C spawn in
his in the airway region and I remember asking somebody, hey,
hold his head put your hands up under the back of his head
because it was hitting the ground every single time it did

(01:00:36):
a compression. So I was like, he, he is dead.
But we don't want to make matters worse if we can help it,
you know so. Once we, once we get kind of the
Lucas going and we get Corey on the stretcher and put him in the
ambulance, we put our monitor onhim where our defect pads where

(01:00:57):
you see the people that say you know clear and you shock them.
When we first put the the defibrillator on him, he had, he
was flat lying. They call that a Sicily.
He had no cardiac activity whatsoever.
In that case, we went ahead and started Ivs on him and we

(01:01:18):
started giving him some medication, epinephrine being
one of them. We eventually were able with
epinephrine and a couple of other drugs were able to get a
rhythm in his heart that we could give electricity to that
would help. We gave him electricity, I think

(01:01:42):
what, 5 * 5 different times throughout the whole call, which
is it's a lot. That's a lot for anybody we got.
But go back just a little bit when we got into the ambulance
and we had him hooked up and everybody's kind of doing their
thing. Like we all kind of, we know

(01:02:02):
each other pretty well and we know what each other thinking
and, and what needs to be done next.
So after we had got him in the ambulance and we had the monitor
on him and stuff like that, I went ahead and put a breathing
tube down his throat so we couldbreathe for him.
Once we did that, and, and I don't know if I've ever shown

(01:02:26):
Corey this, but we try not to get emotionally involved in
calls. It's just kind of, it's not.
You're not taught that. It's just kind of part of it.
But I'm going to show this. This is my father.

(01:02:50):
Corey looks just like my dad. And that's who I saw on that
structure. And in that moment, I didn't
want to give up. I mean, there was, you know,
there was so many signs that were saying, hey, we're doing
everything we can. And at some point you just say

(01:03:13):
enough's enough. I mean, the body can't handle it
or the body's not going to recover from this.
But I don't know if it was, you know, God inside of me or if it
was just the thought of seeing my father laying there.
But we kept going and we did a lot of things to Corey going to

(01:03:35):
the hospital. We were about 38 minutes into
the call from the time that we picked Corey up to the time we
got to. We say it's a little past our
halfway point to the hospital. We gave Corey one last shot.
Corey got a pulse back with thatshock and his eyes fluttered.

(01:04:03):
And in that moment I knew that something happened that was more
than what we could just do. There was life that was being
brought back into him, and that was something that only God can
do. That that's how I feel.

(01:04:24):
I do want to, I do want to chimein right here because I think it
was maybe 1 of the Johns that I to talk to.
So that day I was a firefighter,I was on the fire truck.
I'm a paramedic as well, but I wasn't working like on an
ambulance. We're totally separate.
So that specific day, I decided to let his partner just right in

(01:04:48):
the back with him and I jumped in the front and drive.
A lot of times when you have a super critical call or it's
something that involves a lot going on, I would have jumped in
the back with him because havingtwo paramedics in the back,
having 2-2 people's thinkers going.
And so the reason I didn't jump in the back was because in my

(01:05:10):
mind it was, there was no cardiac activity.
In my mind, he was too far gone.Like I was like, there's nothing
I'm going to do back there. I'm going to let his EMT partner
be in the back because it's justgoing to be a cookie cutter, a
cookie cutter call. They're not going to do anything
else. They're not going to get
anything back. We're going to get to the
hospital and they're going to call it.
And that's what I vividly remember thinking in my mind.

(01:05:33):
And so when I was getting out ofthe back of the ambulance to get
the driver's seat to leave, it was somebody that I cannot
remember. And it may have been, may have
been you. Yeah.
He you said, hey, what does it look like?
And I said, it doesn't look good.
We're just going to go ahead andgo.
But he's probably not going to make it.
I remember those words coming out of my mouth and thinking

(01:05:57):
back now to know that he was in what we call a Sicily.
He's a flat line PEA. There's very no cardiac
activity. The statistics, and I've got
some on my phone here, I'll share in a second.
The statistics for someone to come back, regain a pulse and
even walk out of the hospital after an episode like that is

(01:06:21):
almost 0. So it's not anything I did what
Andy did. I think our skills and y'all's
bystander CPR played a lot into it, but it was more than us and
it was definitely more than y'all too.
So I mean, it's, I mean, you cancall it a miracle.
You can believe in what you believe in, but at the end of

(01:06:42):
the day, it was a God thing. It was a miracle so.
Lots there guys. Thanks a bunch for sharing.
So I want to hear from the rest of the group in a second about
what was going on for you guys during this period of time.
I remember observing that there were a number of conversations

(01:07:04):
happening, but let's just go to the guys that were doing chest
compressions. Describe for us what was going
on or what you were experiencingwhen Andy and Chad and the team
of medical professionals showed up and essentially tagged in and

(01:07:25):
allowed you guys to no longer beprimary on Corey.
What was that like? Yeah, I'll go first.
I, I remember, I think it was the conversation between the
other John and Chad. And we gave my contact
information. It might have been to Andy

(01:07:45):
because we wanted to know, right.
I mean, the, we wanted to at least get closure and whatever
that looked like. And we, we thought we would get
updates on the course post event.
And ironically, one of the one of the problems we were having
was what do we do with Corey's bike?
That was a real problem. Do you remember that Chad or

(01:08:06):
Andy? Like we, we couldn't figure out
what to do with his bike. I don't know that you could get
it. Like you couldn't get it on the
fire engine or the fire truck. Yeah, I, I do remember.
So when we decided to take off to the hospital, my partner that
day, I think there was a conversation maybe with you and

(01:08:28):
him or somebody, because at thatpoint we didn't even, we didn't
know Corey's name, we didn't know his birthday.
We had no information. So what we end up having him do
is he took off back to the startline to try to find somebody in
charge with like an emergency contact.

(01:08:49):
And he, Casey, he, he wasn't able to make it, but he ended up
finding somebody. And I remember driving to the
hospital, I'm talking to him on the phone and I'm relaying
information to Andy, given Corey's name, his date of birth,
his wife, Paula, who he finally got a hold of all of her

(01:09:09):
information. And he was able to call her and
in the most, the most reassuringway, explain a little bit about
what's going on, but not giving too much detail because I think
she was at Core, was at her sister, your sister's house up
in Sky Lake at the time. And I think he had to call her

(01:09:32):
several times because service upthere is pretty scarce.
And he was able to talk to her and say, hey, there's been an
incident, but you need to get down to this hospital in
Gainesville, like, right. Now.
Because, and that was the only way we even knew who he was or
what kind of information we had on them was the information that

(01:09:52):
he gave prior to that race. Yeah.
And and I think, well, Casey andthem took his bike back to the
fire department actually. And they came, I don't know if
your son or if it was Paulo thatcame and got the bike later on,
but they ended up taking it to the fire station.

(01:10:14):
Matt or Eric or John, you guys want to chime in at all in terms
of after Andy got there and teamand the medical pros started
taking over? Definitely it was, I think it
was like all of us, once the, you know, Andy and Chad were
there, I think we were able to like sort of breathe like and

(01:10:36):
take a deep breath and step back.
You know, I think because we were so sucked, you know, sucked
into, you know, what was going on with Corey and our adrenaline
was really going. So I think when they arrived
sort of like, OK, we can take a step back and breathe and they,
you know, the EMS is in control now.

(01:10:57):
They, you know, the professionals are here.
I don't have much experience with, you know, cardiac arrest
and cardiac events. And I, I was optimistic because
we started CPR survey that Coreywould, you know, I didn't, I
didn't realize the gravity of what had happened, but I was
optimistic, you know. Yeah, that transition, it was

(01:11:20):
like gradual. It wasn't, you know, it's not
like a complete switch out because there was constant
service to Cory and, you know, it was it was kind of gradual.
But, you know, I remember saying, hey, let's stop his
garment because I bet there's some useful heart rate
information on there. As it turns out, he wasn't

(01:11:41):
wearing his heart rate strap. So at the end, it didn't have
anything. But.
But yeah, I would echo Matt. And in that it was a bit of a
relief. But, you know, also sitting
there going like, Oh my gosh, this is, you know, 20 minutes
ago or 25 minutes ago, I thoughtthis is somebody who drank too
much coffee or, you know, something, you know, it was

(01:12:05):
something that would pass. And here he is on the ground,
you know, and it doesn't, and itdoesn't look good.
Having not really been involved in those situations that closely
before, there was an immediate like sense of, you know, kind of
maybe agitation or maybe just being annoyed of me expecting
hot having watching movies and how they jump in there and it's

(01:12:27):
like chaos and it's all, you know, everyone's like sense of
urgency. And it was the complete
opposite. Just very nonchalantly walk into
him and I remember being like, there, we have someone is dying
here. Why are they not rushing?
And obviously they know what they're doing.
Obviously it worked out, but do my initial reaction was like,
well, I expected a little bit more of like urgency and I

(01:12:47):
expected them to have, you know,the whatever you call those, you
know, to jump his heart. But obviously all of that
happened once they put him in the in in the ambulance.
But that was my initial just reaction of it being not what I
expected. But, you know, I have to, you
know, I have to rely and trust their training and knowing what

(01:13:07):
they know, what they're doing. Eric, what do you want to add?
I know it's just almost surreal listening to all the stories,
right from all the different vantage points.
It was, you know, the transitionand almost reliving and now it
happened so slow motion, right? The EMTs came up.
It was, and it's almost like youwere hesitant to like giving the

(01:13:27):
reins away, right, Because we had all been doing it everything
for so long. And then I remember the EM TS
took took over and it's like, well, what do we do now?
And you're sitting there like, you know, you didn't know what
to do, right. I think everyone was so lost in
a way. You're standing there like just
lost, dumbfounded. And then when they loaded him
into the ambulance and I wasn't,you know, we were like, was they

(01:13:49):
have a pulse? That was they have a pulse.
I remember asking one of the EM TS that and said no, no pulse.
And I just remember taking a moment of silence.
I said it was just, it was weird, right?
I just remembered getting back on the bike after the land
ambulance pulled away and just pedaling and should we, should
we go, should we come back? Should we go home?

(01:14:10):
This is weird. I don't know.
I don't know and I don't know. I remember some of the crew that
was there, we were all just slowly pedaling.
And I remember we asked that oneof the rest areas.
I said, did anyone say anything that would happen to the
gentleman? And they said, I heard he had
his pulse. They got a pulse.
So at that point, I remember, I don't know who was there, but it

(01:14:31):
was like a shot of something. And then we started peddling.
And then at the end we said, well, how was how was it?
Well, we heard he's in the hospital.
He's, he's alive, he's, he's doing well.
And then I remember one of my friends saying, you should see
if he can get your time modifiedfor that segment.

(01:14:51):
I said it's funny, but it's not funny.
It was, it was, it was just surreal, you know, and, and
reliving it now it's just. It's like, wow.
Everyone, everyone was so In Sync, hearing all the different
stories and how they kind of just molded together.
It's just incredible. But it's, it's a miracle.
It's not. It's nothing, nothing other than
that 'cause he, he wasn't alive.Yeah.

(01:15:16):
I mean, it's, I think we, we know all of that very, very
plainly medically from, from lots of people saying that.
So Dan and Evan, what do you guys want to add here?
And, and you know, feel free if there's anything, I know you
guys kind of describe what was happening for you at this point,
but now that you've heard a little bit more, if there's
anything else that you guys wantto chime in with, feel free.

(01:15:38):
The only thing I'd say is I think it's really interesting
that Andy pointed out first thing, which is, you know, we
feel this moment for us. Was like endless, like a long
time. And the moment from call to to
arrival on scene was less than 10 minutes.
That's crazy to me. I really didn't you you could

(01:15:59):
convince me that this whole thing happened for 20 to 30
minutes. That's not the case.
And it and it's an interesting fact.
Yeah, good point. We'll come back to some of that
in a second. Dan, anything you want to add in
just like hearing all the other additional perspectives,

(01:16:21):
especially from from Andy and Chad, you know, and what you
guys did and the commitment thatyou made the decisions that you
made. And it's just, it's so moving
because I remember thinking like, we just saw a man die on
the side of the road. I mean, I actually remember
texting my wife when we got to the top of that client after we
decided to continue going. I remember we got to the top of

(01:16:42):
that client had enough service. I remember texting my wife and
just saying, like, I don't know if it's Texas going to go
through, I'll talk to you later.But we just saw a guy die on the
side of the road and I'll tell, I'll tell you about it later.
And yeah, I mean, just clearly that's not the outcome that
happened. And you know, Eric Jones

(01:17:03):
happened at your comment about the timing.
And there never, never been so happy to come in almost dead
last in a grand, grand fondo, you know, because of the amount
of time that elapsed there. And I'm and I'm thankful for
every second that we stood thereand, you know, try to do what we
did. So I remember watching the

(01:17:25):
machine do chest compressions onCorey.
So I had, as mentioned, gone back to the course.
Marshall and I had been beaten back to the scene by the
ambulance. So I never saw Eric and John and
John and gents doing chest compressions.
I get back to the scene when I see the medical professionals

(01:17:51):
handling everything. And so it was clear at that
point to me that there was no role for me to play at all in
any type of physical sense. And I also recall that I think
it was Dan, but it may have beenother people even.
I think it actually might have been John without an H that was
directing traffic because as Andy had mentioned, the road was

(01:18:13):
basically shut down, but there was half a lane available and
then enough of a shoulder to kind of get people through.
And so we were just trying to begood citizens and help people,
you know, get around. And so there was ultimately
nothing for me to do in any kindof tangible physical sense.
And as I was on my way to the course Marshall and on my way

(01:18:35):
back, I was praying. And when I got back to the
scene, I got off of my bike and I remember being approximately
15 feet behind the ambulance andI got on my knees in the middle
of the road. And I was praying.
And I was praying for who is Corey, but we have no idea what

(01:18:59):
his name is. And I was praying specifically
for God's glory to be revealed. And I was asking him to bring
this man back to life. Now, I have no idea who this
person is. And like nearly all of us in
this conversation, it was fully my perception that that person

(01:19:22):
was dead. So Corey at the time, as we
later found out, is in his mid 50s.
He looked to me to be well into his 70s.
And I remember remarking to myself about how old the guy was
and I was surprised to see him riding.

(01:19:43):
Well, ultimately, I think that was just evidence of the fact
that there was literally no lifein him.
And so he looked so massively aged compared to what he
normally looks like. So similar to what Dan was
describing earlier about seeing,knowing many of us, you know,
hearing there's no pulse, checking for no pulse like Matt

(01:20:04):
did. It was very clear to me having
never seen a dead person, that Corey was dead.
No question about it in my mind.And I remember thinking to
myself. That they just loaded a dead man
into that ambulance and I could see the machine going and all of
that and the lifelessness, just sort of how Corey's arm just

(01:20:24):
draped around as they moved him and the Gurney and all of that
type of stuff. Well, this whole time I'm
praying, and I was praying out loud, which wasn't exactly a
normal thing for me to do, but Iwas praying that God would
literally bring him back to life.
And when they loaded the dead body into the ambulance, at that

(01:20:50):
point, it was like it was over. The whole thing was over.
And admittedly, I was really, I was disappointed because I had
like been earnestly praying for a miracle that God's glory would
be revealed and that he would come back to life because it

(01:21:13):
sure looked like everything was being done properly in order for
that to occur. And I'm like, God's got an
opportunity to do this. And so I've transparently was
disappointed. And I got up at that point
because everything has clearly been been done.
And I remember standing next to Chad, who was part of our group

(01:21:38):
and just sort of looking at him and he was many inches taller
than I was. So it was sort of odd to
actually be looking up at him. But I, I looked up at him as I'm
standing up and he says, thanks for doing that.
I'm like, I'm thinking that's weird, like what you know, and
he goes, well, while you were praying, I texted people at my

(01:22:02):
church and they stopped the service and all started praying
for him. So thanks for doing that to
which I said to Chad, I was like, well, thanks for doing
that. Like that's a big deal, at least
to me it was. So the ambulance drives away.
We talked about this a little bit more previously that, you

(01:22:25):
know, I think it was John without an H who was sort of the
lead negotiator on getting the guy running the fire truck to
take the bike back. Because where, you know, a lot
of people were looking to to us to like take the bike because,
you know, our crew had been so involved in this and we're like,
we have no idea who this person is.

(01:22:47):
And we're like, we're on a ride too.
Like you have big truck and there's little bike, take little
bike and put little bike in big truck.
You know what I mean? Like don't make us have to do
something with this, you know. And then eventually the fireman
ended up taking it back and we were quite relieved because that
gave us the opportunity then to have the decision as to whether

(01:23:10):
or not we were going to continuethe ride.
And so I'll chat for our group. I remember all of us talking
about that and being emotionallywiped, but we, we were kind of
deciding, discussing the, the realities of like what we, we

(01:23:30):
did everything we could and the reason we came here was for this
particular ride. So maybe we should just decide
to finish the ride out. John, Eric, you guys continued.
What was it like for you guys orhow did you get to that decision
point? Well, the ambulance took him,
said you want to turn around or what should we do?

(01:23:51):
I said. I said I don't know again, so
let's just pedal. I just want to.
I just want to pedal and I just pedaled.
I don't remember racing because I just pedaled and I remember
taking the left up, up the hill,right.
And it got sunny again. And I just remember pedaling and
not talking until the top of themountain.
And then we caught up again. It's like, God, do you think

(01:24:12):
he's all right? I just remember that bagel.
But yeah, vividly. And then and then the first rest
area, we found out that he regained his bowls somehow.
Someone said somebody found out So, but it was.
I just remember just peddling but not even thinking about it.
Just just to clear my head. I guess, like we all do, right

(01:24:33):
pedal to clear your head. It was just part of that, but it
was weird. I remember that part of it
really just vividly, climbing inthe sun, but with the no real
emotion. Just kind of like shocked, but
just. Peddling, yeah, I can relate to
that. And I distinctly remember, like
you're describing, that left hand turn where the climb.

(01:24:56):
Was left in the yeah. Yeah.
But I don't remember the hill I just remembered going.
Saw the ambulance about to take off.
That's, I think that's when Ericand I decided, hey, we got to
get moving if we want to do this.
Yeah. And then it was a very
emotional, probably because it was a, it was a good, it was a
good 10:15, I want to say 10 miles before the next rest stop.

(01:25:18):
And, and I remember that becauseI blew out my legs.
I mean, I we just went way too hard of the adrenaline and just
emotional and I mean, I definitely cried on the way up
so. Yeah, I remember.
So, you know, you're there. You're in the place.
There's this place that you've been for about 30 minutes.
There's all this meaningful activity happening.

(01:25:41):
The subject or the object. That activity gets put in a red
truck, doors close, it moves, everybody dissipates, and you're
still standing there and you're like, what, what just happened?
Like, did that really just happened?
And I, I think like Eric, I kindof, I didn't want to ride with

(01:26:03):
anybody. I just wanted to process that,
like what just happened. And it was, it was really a
roller coaster of, of emotions, like for the next, I don't know,
50 miles or whatever. Yeah, because I didn't know that
he made it. I didn't know that he was alive.
Like I got to the since I, I remember I'm nobody knows I'm

(01:26:28):
there, like nobody in the organization knows I'm there.
So I get back to the finish and I'm like, well, I should kind of
tell the guy that putting this event on that I think somebody
died. Like if he, I'm sure he knows
this, but that I think somebody died and I was there and I'm,
I'm guessing he's going to need some sort of statement for

(01:26:48):
insurance or for what you do when somebody dies.
It's your at your event. And he's the one that said, oh,
you know, I, I don't think he's dead yet.
So, yeah, but it was a, it was a, yeah, I needed that this
space to to, to just kind of process what happened.

(01:27:11):
Well, Annie and Shad, let's go back to the ambulance ride 38
minutes in from time of call, and now there's a pulse.
Take us from there. So once we got the pulse back,

(01:27:33):
we put on what we call A12 lead EKG, which basically takes 10
different view picture of your heart.
When we did that, I could see inthat that Corey was having a
heart attack. I called the hospital, which is
Northeast Georgia Medical Centerin Gainesville and give them a

(01:27:56):
heads up. Hey, you know, this guy was in
cardiac arrest. We've got him back.
We've done the EKG and he's showon what they call a STEMI, which
is AST elevated MI, which is a mitochord myocardial infarction.
Sorry, I can't talk. And what they do at that point,

(01:28:16):
it was alert the Cath lab, whichis where they'll go in and put
stents in, open up the blocked artery that was causing the
incident to occur. Once we so we were probably 12
minutes away when I call and we got to the hospital, that team

(01:28:40):
was there and they were ready toroll.
So we went with Corey upstairs to the Cath lab.
We watched for a couple minutes to just confirm our suspicions
of the heart attack and kind of could see where it was in the
heart and then compare it with the information that we were

(01:29:00):
getting through through the Ek GS.
I think when we left there to meand Chad were just kind of
talking, you know, about the call and I think we were both
just kind of like, you know, this guy was in cardiac arrest
for 38 minutes for just us. Now he has a pulse.

(01:29:27):
There's probably not going to bea good outcome or if there is a
an outcome, it's not going to be1 of good quality of life.
We've, we've seen it, you know, multiple times in our, in our
field where, where there's not such a good outcome.
But the next shift that we were back on duty, we were down at

(01:29:54):
Gainesville and the guy that I was working my partner to
checked to see if Corey was still alive and to.
Our. Contacts or whatever they told
us, yeah, he's still alive. He's in the ICU.

(01:30:17):
Me and my partner went upstairs to to see Corey and that's when
we walked in and he's sitting upin the bed and he's like my
chest hurts and I don't. I don't remember any of y'alls,
but I want to say it was your mom, that Corey's mom that was

(01:30:39):
there at the hospital and she came and she gave me a hug and
she said thank you for saving myson.
And Paula was there. And I mean, just the, the
overwhelming part of that and being involved.
And then now you're emotionally involved in it and you want to

(01:31:02):
see the progression of how he does, how he continues to do is,
you know, it it it's something that we need to in our
profession. We need that closure.
We need to know that what we didbe a very small part that God
was in control of everything. I mean, that's that's bottom

(01:31:25):
line. And Chad will agree with it with
me on that one. It's it's crazy to think I
can't. He's been doing this a lot
longer. Not feeling your age, but we
run, we've ran, I don't know, 100 cardiac arrest, probably
same kind of same scenario, samesituation.

(01:31:47):
And you can count on one hand how many outcomes we have like
this. And it's, and it's, it's amazing
what, what bystander CPR does for one, because that truthfully
was probably one of the, one of the biggest reasons why Corey's

(01:32:09):
still here is because it took usaround just under 10 minutes to
get there. Within 10 minutes of not having
CPR, someone's going to be braindead.
Within 3 to 4 minutes without anything going on is when was it
is when the damage begins to occur.
So had the bystander CPR not been going on, we wouldn't be

(01:32:32):
having this conversation right now.
And that's not a take away of any of the miraculous part of
it. But God's going to use
everybody. He's going to use all of our
hands to take part in this as we've been listening to for the
past hour or so. And that's it's, it's just a
part of it. But the by center CPR is that is

(01:32:53):
why Corey is here. Right on, right on.
Well, Corey, we're almost to you, but I want to hear from the
group. Let's sort of like close out the
day essentially because I remember for our crew, we got

(01:33:14):
back to, we got back to the finish line.
Evan, you met us there because you took a little bit of a, a
shorter route back and it was, Ibelieve it was then that we had
heard, but perhaps we had heard earlier, I don't recall.
So maybe somebody can clarify that when did our group find out

(01:33:36):
that Corey might have still beenalive, although still in quite a
quite a perilous situation? Anybody recall that?
I thought it was when Paula called us during dinner.
That's kind of what I remember because I couldn't, we couldn't
really get any good information at the at the rest stops.

(01:33:57):
I don't remember getting like, we asked a couple people and
the, you know, it's all volunteers and information
wasn't really flowing real well.And then we were like barely
getting to the last one without them shutting down anyway
because we're so late. But we got a call from Paula
during dinner and she was the one that let us in on the on the

(01:34:21):
news. And the way that she voiced it
was that, you know, they were trying to keep him going long
enough just to meet a new grandbaby.
And, and that was the goal, you know, like Chad and Andy got
them there. And at this point they're just
like hoping for him to stay alive a little longer.

(01:34:43):
They can, you know, have the baby there or whatever.
And she was, Paula was obviouslysuper upset and everything else.
But at that point we were like, huh, OK.
We're all kind of sat there at dinner and we were just like,
OK, wow. I guess, I mean, listen, not to
upset anybody, but we literally were like, well, he's probably

(01:35:04):
going to be cognitively heavily cognitively diminished, you
know, or damaged. You just can't go that long
without. And we we had not administered
CPR, right? I mean, it was all compressions
because the protocols changed somany times over the years.
But we just thought that, you know, this was kind of a, he's

(01:35:27):
going to, you know, be there fora few more days or however long
they want to keep them on life support and that's it.
And that was until I heard from,it might have been Andy a couple
days later when he told me the Chick-fil-A story.
It was either Andy or maybe it was Chad, I don't know.
One of them called me when I wasback in Florida and was like,

(01:35:49):
are you sitting down and told methe Chick-fil-A story?
And I'm like, what are you talking about?
So anyway, that's, that's kind of how what I remember how it
went down, yeah. Anybody else have any other

(01:36:10):
recollections from the end of the the ride that they want to
share? Yeah, from the end of it, we
were always wondering, you know,we talked to the race director
trying to find out who Corey what, who he was, what happened.
No one knew anything. Right.
So we looked at the score, you know, the time chart afterwards
against, we're driving home, both of us.

(01:36:31):
And he determined he found Corey, the name that did not
finish. And then he looked onto Facebook
and I guess he found Corey's, I think it was Corey's son's
Facebook. And he reached out to him say a
message. I was just at the Grand Fondo
and I think I helped your fatherand I think he reached out to

(01:36:55):
two different people and one of them was Corey's son.
And then he responded and that'show.
And then Paula reached out to toto gents, and that's how we kind
of heard all the news. It's in my mind, he in my mind,
he, I did not know that he had survived.
So in my mind, he was a goner. So I felt like his family needed
to know the what exactly what happened.

(01:37:16):
And we were one of the last few with him.
And, you know, we took care of him just meaning to tell him
that that's really what the drive was.
And I very specifically remembergetting a list of the start
times with everyone on there andbeing like, oh, wow, let's just
send this to, you know, they send this to everyone, OK.
And thinking in my mind, you know, I bet I can identify who

(01:37:37):
the person is. And you know, just once I was
able to narrow it down, I'm like, well, this should be easy
because most cyclists, what do cyclists love more than riding
post in their rides? So I just knew the moment I
would get a name, I would be able to hunt him down.
And then and then running into like realizing he didn't have

(01:37:59):
much social media outside of theStrava account.
But then somehow I think it was when I was going through Strava
account, I think I saw some pictures.
I'll have to go back and look, but I believe so maybe I was
able to get a hold of see his, yeah, his followers on Strava.
Maybe one of his sons was a, hisfollower on Strava, of which

(01:38:21):
then I sort of googled his name and I found his Facebook
account. And then lo and behold, you
know, he's on his, you know, hisson's pictures on profile.
So I, I knew I was spot on that I'd found him.
And luckily I think Adam, his son, I believe his name is Adam.
I, I, luckily he got back to me relatively quickly, which I
honestly, I'm, I don't know thatthere's been many happier

(01:38:45):
moments in my life than just realizing that he survived
because I was like, hey, we werepart of that.
So I'm so immensely proud of thestory.
I, I tell it to everyone. I I'm so proud of it.
Then look what like last year weall went, we went to riding,
tether, gravel riding and I couldn't keep up with Corey so.

(01:39:05):
Yeah, it's a beautiful thing. Stronger than ever.
We we're going to go to you Corey here in a second, but I'll
just kind of round this out. So I recall meeting Evan back at
the finish line and going up to the race director and saying,
hey, listen, similar what what Jonathan H was talking about,
you know, hey, we were involved in that incident.

(01:39:27):
We'd like to stay in the loop. And so I remember giving that
guy my phone number and asking him to keep his posted, having
very low expectations for outcomes, but also that they
would even follow up with us. And so we then went back to our
house eventually and cleaned up and went out to dinner.
And then John without an H, You're right.

(01:39:50):
That's how it went down that Paula ended up calling me.
I decided to answer the phone. It was an unrecognized number or
number that I didn't recognize but was somewhat local.
And so I thought, oh, maybe thisis related to everything that
happened. So I answered while we were all
at dinner and it turned out to be Paula, who I've never spoken
to before. She and I spoke briefly.

(01:40:13):
And she began to thank me for everything that I'd done.
And I was like, I haven't done anything.
All I did was pray you got to talk to the guys that actually
did chest compressions. So I handed the phone over to to
John. And then I remember you stepping
away just to a quieter area to be able to have a conversation
with her. And we kind of got a bunch of

(01:40:33):
information after that. So Corey, you get delivered to
the hospital and tell us a little bit about not only what
happens, but what parts of it you.
Remember. Well, that's the $1,000,000
question, because unfortunately or fortunately, I don't know

(01:40:55):
which one, I don't remember muchof anything at all from the time
I checked in that Sunday morningfor the Grand Fondo until
basically that whole next week until Friday.
So I don't remember anything about the incident at all.
I don't remember. I don't remember anything.
Now, there were two interesting things I remembered in the

(01:41:17):
hospital, which may sound weird and I don't know why I remember
this, but I did. You know, you have to go to the
bathroom, one of those cups whenyou're sitting in the bed.
And so I remember I was filling mine up so fast, I was having to
call the nurses in there like all the time to come.
You need to come in here and empty this thing out.
Because I can't keep doing this.So that's one weird thing I
remember. The other weird thing I

(01:41:38):
remembered in the hospital was so at the time, the previous few
years, me and my wife have been doing intermittent fasting, so I
wasn't eating breakfast. So I remember vividly when I was
in the hospital, they were like,they came in and said, well,
what do you want for breakfast? And I was like, I don't need
breakfast, but yeah, I'd love tohave breakfast.
So I like, ordered an omelet with all this stuff in it, which

(01:41:59):
I was surprised they gave me, but they did.
But that. So those two things are two
things I remembered in the hospital.
And I remember the day I was discharged, which was that
Friday, and Paula was there obviously, and, you know, helped
me get out and we met with some of the doctors outside, took
pictures. And so I remember being
discharged. And another, another funny thing

(01:42:20):
is that Friday when I was discharged, she had been coming
back and forth to the hospital from Skylake and she had passed
this, this ice cream place. And she was like on the way
home, she said, let's stop and get some ice cream.
So we stopped at the ice cream place and got ice cream on the
way back, which again, I guess for a cardiac patient,
especially that soon after that happening, I'm like, is this a
good idea? I'm not sure.

(01:42:42):
But anyway, I got like a milkshake and it was the best
thing I've ever had. So well the stents were were
fresh at that point, so. I know, I know.
Well, I guess I think that the doctors just said, well, like
you didn't have high cholesterol, you didn't have
this, you didn't have that, yourblood pressure was good.
And the only thing I know for sure 100% is that this is purely

(01:43:05):
genetic. So my 2 grandfathers, 1
grandfather died in his 40s, onegrandfather died in his 50s.
My dad had at least one heart attack.
And I don't want to go off the rails here about this story, but
I'm going to tell it anyway. Two years ago we were at my
house, my house here in Senoia, and we were celebrating my

(01:43:25):
grandson's 10th birthday. And so my parents came over for
the birthday celebration and my dad just wasn't feeling quite
right. We to tell something's wrong.
Well, throughout the night he started feeling worse in our
house and eventually we said well let's just go back on the
back porch and just lay on the couch and just get some fresh
air. Well, he did that.
Well the next thing we know he had a defibrillator in his in

(01:43:47):
his first heart. That thing started going off
like a lot and he went into flatline situation just like I did.
And so I was on the phone with 911, and my daughter-in-law was
doing chest compressions on him on my back porch.
And so finally the ambulance showed up.
They put him on the ground, and they put the same Lucas machine

(01:44:08):
on him that Andy and those guys have put on me.
Sorry. It's OK.
So it was just really surreal tobe on the other side of the bat

(01:44:38):
and see that happened to my dad.I just so I couldn't believe
that I was just like in shock. And he ended up passing away
that night, which we weren't really surprised because he had
some serious heart issues and problems.
So but it was just it was crazy to go through that situation.

(01:45:03):
So similar to what I went through.
Well, I mean, it was sort of similar, I guess, but you know,
kind of the same thing And just be on the other side of that and
see what was going on with him. And just like Andy, like you
guys were talking, like when youput that machine on a person, it
makes their head bang back and forth.
And I was sitting there watchinghis head banging back and forth
just like my head had banged back and forth even though I

(01:45:23):
didn't know that it happened. So anyway, I just want to throw
that story out and just let you know that, you know, a similar
thing happened to me and I was the other side of it and got to
to see it first hand. And it was, it was scary and
frightening. So I can only imagine what you
guys went through seeing me on the ground that day, going

(01:45:44):
through all that and everything you did to help save my life.
So yeah. Well, Corey, thank you for I.
Didn't mean to get all emotionalabout it, man.
You know, I've talked to severalof these guys over the past few
years about this and you know, Ithink I cry every time.
Yeah, the emotions are totally fine here.

(01:46:07):
Take your time man. It's just hard because I, I
don't remember anything about it.
And sometimes I'm like, did thisactually happen to me?
Which I know it did without a doubt, but it's just so weird to

(01:46:33):
think about it because I don't recall anything about it.
I don't know how it happened, what happened the whole process
of that week in the hospital. I don't remember for the most
part. So, you know, it's just, I know
it's hard for you guys to think about it, but on my side of it,
it's just like, I shouldn't evenbe here.
Like, how did this even happen? Why am I still here?

(01:46:55):
Because like Andy, like you guyssaid, I mean, maybe, maybe at
best one out of 100 cardiac arrest patients will survive.
And that's not, those are not good odds.
And especially for me to be backfunctionally, functionally
normally like I am. I mean, I left the hospital that
week and I was just like, OK, well, what's next?
Where do we, what are we doing now?
You know, it's like nothing happened to me, even though that

(01:47:18):
was not the case, so. Yeah.
You know, the the next week I actually started working again.
We stayed up in in Skylake for like another week and I started
working again. And one of the weird things was
this is I guess related to my situation, but like, I couldn't
type quite right. I was, I was mistyping words.
I was having to backspace a lot and retype stuff and all this.

(01:47:39):
So I'm sure that was the after effects of what happened to me.
But yeah, I mean, after that everything just came back
normally and it was like I was nothing ever happened to me.
So it's just so strange and bizarre to think about that.
Yeah. And Corey, based on that you
mentioned the backspacing and those types of things mistyping,

(01:48:01):
what would you say roughly speaking, it was in terms of
total amount of time until you were back to quote UN quote
normal? I think mentally, I think it was
probably no more than two weeks,seriously, which I was shocked
about that because like you know, before that happened, that

(01:48:26):
Friday, previous to that happening, I was working on a
project. So I'm a professional hacker.
So I hack into stuff and tell clients how to fix their
problems, that kind of thing. So I was working on a project, I
was in the hospital in the next week.
The next week I started working again like on Monday, but I
couldn't work fully a full day. I was like really tired.
So I had to take naps during theday and that kind of thing.
But by the end of that week, I think I was kind of almost back

(01:48:49):
to myself again for the most part.
And then it just got continued to get better and better after
that. So I would say two to two to
three weeks after that incident occurring, I think I was pretty
well back to maybe where I was before.
So I didn't have any long lasting mental problems or or
anything, which is really shocking.

(01:49:10):
Yeah. Well, round us out a bit with
some of the physical achievements that have occurred
for you since then. So you go from quite the how
shall we say, dramatic Do not finish or DNF of the Helen Grand
Fondo in 2021 and then what happened in 2223 and 24?

(01:49:37):
Yeah. So just after that happened, we
came back down to Tyrone, GA, which is where my mother-in-law
lives. We were staying with her while
we're waiting for the baby to beborn and our motorhome to get
worked on. So we came back there and I
continued working and Paula was like, OK, you are not going to
ride your bike again until you go through your cardio rehab.

(01:49:59):
So I was like, yes, I understandthat.
That's, I totally get it. That's fair.
I'll, I'll, I'll not do that. So I went to cardio rehab and
later in the summer, that summer, I went through all that
and that was all fine and good. I had no issues.
Everything was good. Although I was the youngest guy
in that cardio rehab class by far.
It was kind of funny because allthese other guys are in there
were like, you know, 70 plus years old.

(01:50:21):
They were pretty old people. So I went to cardio rehab and
then we picked up our motorhome.We traveled to Bentonville, AR
and we were traveling with some friends at the time.
They just bought a motorhome too.
So we got there and I went out on my first mountain bike ride
with a friend of mine who was also a cyclist there in
Bentonville, which is a great place to do that by the way.

(01:50:43):
And I was just remember that first ride.
I was just like sucking wind. I was so like, I'm never going
to do this again. I can't do this.
But to make a Long story short, I continued to ride.
I got back into shape. We continued to travel until
2022. And so that next year I was
like, we were up in Hiawassee, Ibelieve, which is close to

(01:51:05):
Helen, still in the motorhome. And I knew that the grand Fondo
was coming up again. So I was like, I'm going to sign
up for this and do it again. So I signed up for it and went
over there and I met the guy running the whole thing.
His name is Ruben. And he was like, what are you
doing here? Like he was like surprised to
see me. He couldn't believe I was there.
And so I did the race and I camein first place in my age group

(01:51:28):
that year. And then 2023 I went back again
and I came in third place in my age group.
And then last year I went back and got first place in my age
group again. So, you know, for whatever it's
worth, I mean, I, I, I've been doing this for 38 years.
So, you know, I'll started out racing on the road and do all
that stuff. So I've been doing this forever

(01:51:49):
and it's kind of part of my, youknow, DNA at this point.
Then last year I actually rode over 15,000 miles.
So, you know, it's not like I'm a casual rider.
I do a quite a bit of this stuffand I do Tuesday night rides
with Fast Race Group and I ride Saturday mornings and you know,
I just do all the stuff. So physically I've gotten back

(01:52:12):
to pretty much to where I was before.
And you know, I'm, I'm thankful for that because I enjoy, I
still enjoy doing it after, after so long.
So it's been, it's been a good thing for me.
Yeah, really wonderful, those outcomes.
I want to let the listeners knowtoo, though, that a professional
cyclist and Corey, you are not aprofessional cyclist.
You mentioned you're sort of a white hat hacker.

(01:52:34):
A professional cyclist will typically ride somewhere between
15 and 17,000 miles in a year. So for you to be at the level
that you were in terms of 15,000miles in 2024, being post the
myocardial infarction from a handful of years ago is quite,

(01:52:55):
quite astounding. So really, really amazing.
Yeah, I think I've, I think I'verecovered well and I've had to,
you know, I guess to say the least, I've had no recurring
issues. I go to cardiologist once a
year. I go to the the GP twice a year
for physical and checkups and that kind of thing.
And you know, fact, I was going to the cardiologist twice a

(01:53:19):
year. And then the last time I went
the guy was like, I don't need to see you for another year.
So he just said don't come back for another year.
So I'm going back in May of thisyear.
And one thing they do when I'm there, when they had me in the
hospital in Gainesville, they put a what's called a loop
recorder. They put a loop recorder in my
chest. It's not a defibrillator, but
it's a loop recorder. So it records my heart.
And every time I go to the cardiologist, they read the

(01:53:40):
information off of it and tell me if I've had any, you know,
instance like tachycardia or bradycardia or, you know, atrial
fibrillation or anything like that.
And you know, since that isn't occurred, I've had no instance
whatsoever show up. So that's good.
And you know, my issue was really not an electrical issue
and it was a plumbing issue. So it was just the, the arteries

(01:54:01):
had gotten clogged up. And you know, another thing
which I don't think we've said yet too, is one of those
arteries was the LED. So that's the widowmaker artery,
which most people don't survive when that happens.
So, you know, the fact that I survived is I think 80 or one of
you guys said it before, it was a total God thing.

(01:54:22):
And I believe that 100% to my heart, no pun intended.
That's funny, I I literally didn't get it.
And then we're like, Oh no pun Nintendo like that makes perfect
sense. That was a good one.
That was a good one. Well guys, you've all been
awesome. We've, we've got a few more
moments here where we want to land this plane.

(01:54:42):
And we do that here on when you look by asking everybody 2
questions. And the first of which is, was
it coincidence or God? And we're very intellectually
honest here that not everybody necessarily has the same answer,
but we'll kind of go in a similar order to where we went
with the introduction. So Corey, we're going to start

(01:55:03):
with you and just give us a quick response on from your
perspective, was this a coincidence that you survived?
Was it a coincidence that everybody was there?
Or was this whole thing from your perspective, kind of a God
in action type of moment? And then we'll roll through with
everybody else. And again, I can't overstate
this, that it's really importantto me as the host here that
everybody gives their honest opinion on this and that we all

(01:55:26):
have different opinions and that's a OK.
So, Corey, was it coincidence orGod?
That's a very easy answer for me.
I think a lot of people could say that this was coincidental
and just random and just happened by luck or whatever you
want to call it. But I say absolutely no to that.

(01:55:50):
You know, the fact that I registered for this is the last
minute. We happen to be in Helen any
other day of the year, honestly,we have been on the road for
five years, almost five years. I rode on the road by myself on
gravel 100% of the time all across our country.
This could have happened any other day and if I'd been out by
myself, I would not be here today, I'm sure of you know, and

(01:56:14):
there were so many. There were 300 some, some odd
people in that, that Grand Fondoride that day.
And you know, I don't find it coincidental that there were you
guys who stopped and helped, thank goodness, and that other
people helped as well. And just the whole thing to me
is is totally a miracle from God.

(01:56:37):
And you know, I've been a believer in Jesus since I was a
teenager. And, you know, I've lived my
life that way. And I believe 100% that he saves
me that day. And he used you guys to do that.
And I know it's fine if you don't believe that.
I get it. I understand.

(01:56:57):
But I just want to say for me and for my family, we, we
believe that that's exactly whathappened to God.
You. Yeah, God used you guys to save
me. He didn't put his hand directly
on me and save me, but he workedthrough you guys to do that.
And without that, I absolutely would not be here today.
So, you know, I'm so thankful that all you guys were there and

(01:57:20):
that you decided to stop and help because like Andy and like
you guys said, if CPR and chest compressions, that that's
probably what saved me for the most part.
So thank you. That's all I can say.
Thanks, Corey. All right, Jonathan H, we're
going to go to you. Coincidence or God?

(01:57:44):
I'm going to say respectfully, and I guess it'll go into sort
of minutiae of how God is working.
You know, you know, is, is it that, that you know, on one
hand, I would, I would have, it would have to, it would give
credence to every time a quarterback, an NFL quarterback
prayed that whatever wide receiver caught the pass and the

(01:58:07):
end zone, you know, that that's that's God working.
But if, if you want to say that it was God working through each
and every person in caring abouteach other, OK, I'll, I'll, I'll
buy that. But I'm, I'm not necessarily
someone that believes God is moving pieces around.

(01:58:28):
I think it's an it's more of an example thing.
Oh, thanks for your response. All right, John, without an HI,
think you were up next in our intros.
Yeah, I think, I think there wasa confluence of events that came
together. And I'm glad we were there.

(01:58:49):
I am so glad we were there to save Corey and that we had each
other and smart and capable people.
I, I think if there were miracles like this, you know,
God miracles, they'd be happening all over the place or
they should be happening all over the place.

(01:59:11):
For every miracle that someone could point to that said God
was, you know, transitioning through the moment to save that
person, I can point to 1,000,000where I'm like, where was he?
You know, why wasn't he there? That for those people?
So I fall on the side of, you know, I think I heard a little

(01:59:33):
bit of this and John, it's like,hey, I think there's a lot of
good people out there. I think there's a lot of helpful
people out there. I think there's a lot of really
good science out there that all came together and, and help save
Corey's life. So totally respecting
everybody's belief system. You know, Mick, I, I totally

(01:59:56):
everything that you've been through and that Corey's
described in his, his way of life.
I'm just. You know, I think it was a
fortuitous moment that we all came together in that moment.
Yeah, Rodger, that man, We fullyrespect that on the show for
sure. So thanks for your honesty
there. All right, Matt, I think you

(02:00:17):
were up next on intros Coincidence or God.
So, you know, Corey's event and his incident, I think it's
important that we all like came together and we all deal with a
role that day. You know, there was a lot of
coincidences, you know, and I think the biggest thing is that

(02:00:43):
we worked as a team and we were,we weren't prepared for what we
did, but we did it and and we were together and everyone, you
know, did their best. We did our best to CPR and EMS
did their best to continually shocking Corey and giving him

(02:01:04):
the EPI. And you know, like, like John
and John said, they're if, if you know, if I'm on the side
that if this was a miracle and that God, you know, if God was

(02:01:26):
involved, then there should be more.
Events like this. Which I just I think that our us
being there was a, you know, we did everything we can do and
ended up in a positive outcome and, you know, we're happy to
have core with us. Yeah.
Right on, man. Thanks for the honest answer.

(02:01:46):
All right, Dan, how about you? Coincidence or God?
Yeah, Yeah. Since we're at five years, four
years and thinking a lot about this, especially leading up to
the show here today. And I just for me, there's just
so many the cumulative effect ofall the contributions people

(02:02:07):
made that will big and small andseemingly inconsequential at the
time or hugely consequential at the time.
Like I just, to me, I can't, I get good faith label that as a
coincidence or, or just a culmination of coincidences.
Like there's, there's a, there'sa bigger hand at play there.

(02:02:29):
And so in, in my mind, and I think a lot about this, there's
no doubt this is a miracle and that God put the people that
Corey needed together in the right place in the right time to
do the right thing. And thank God all of those
people chose to to take an action and do the thing that we

(02:02:50):
were put there to do. Yeah.
Thanks for your honest answer, man.
Appreciate it. All right, Evan, you're up.
Coincidence or God? Yeah, it's a tough question for
me. Coincidence or God, I don't
know. I still don't know four years
later. But I'll share that I was moved

(02:03:13):
heavily emotionally that day andI do live my life.
To the fullest and respecting the time that we have here on
this earth and opening my mind up to new perspectives and it
challenges me to to to explore and, and I respect it and and it

(02:03:36):
has opened. Me up to.
Another sort of opportunity of where I've felt something
spiritual in my life since. So I'm curious.
I'll just say that I'm a curiousindividual, but I don't know.
And I am thankful and appreciative of everybody

(02:03:59):
sharing their story and being able to to talk to Corey today.
I think it's really, really, really cool.
So thanks. Yeah.
Thanks for your honest answer. All right, Eric, you're up.
Tell us coincidence or God? I mean, I'd, I'd, I'd say it was
more, it was God. I just too many, too many things

(02:04:19):
had to line up absolutely perfect down to the second, down
to the minute. And being in the middle of
Helen, GA with no middle of nowhere God's country.
Let's just say that just there'sno other, there's no other
explanation for me. I mean, I grew up Catholic,
Catholic school and that's ingrained in my upbringing.

(02:04:41):
So yeah, I would say it's it's amiracle from from God that
Corey's here with probably even better performance he had before
the incident. Yeah, well thank you for your
honest answer. Hence coincidence or God like I

(02:05:01):
like I said, all of the above. I would, I would say I don't
think the outcome would have been the same if you took out
any little portion of this entire event.
I don't think you can take one hair out of this event and it
the outcome be the same. I don't believe so.
I think the number one contributing factor, it's just

(02:05:23):
Corey's resilience and just him being in well outside of his,
you know, the, the arteries and his heart just being in great
condition and his body just not giving up.
And like I said, his body was sending me messages that, hey,
this is working when we were doing CPR.
So I would say his resilience, his training, his just desire to

(02:05:45):
live the right people at the right time and right place.
And for him to have been as out for as many as long as he was,
it's almost medically impossibleto not have any brain damage
from the lack of oxygen for thatlong.
Like it's impossible. Look, it's very rare.
So yes, there's definitely some God in there, some higher power

(02:06:07):
that just saw the greatness of all these people coming together
for, for one cause and, you know, sprinkling in some, you
know, some good deed, you know, just just some good fate out
there. 100% I think it's a, you know, sum of all parts.
Yeah. Thanks for the authentic answer
there, Andy, You're up next. Coincidence or God?

(02:06:30):
There's too many factors and, and, and I serve a big God and I
wanted to see 100% believe it was a it's a God thing.
God put us all there. It's bigger than it's bigger
than all of us. Thanks for your honest answer,
Shad. Yeah.
So yeah, to piggyback off you and Dan and Eric, so many

(02:06:55):
moving, so many moving parts, somany things to orchestrate in
this entire thing, even just core, even showing up to the
race. And then everyone else is what
happened for y'all to get there too.
To me, it just doesn't make sense.
And for me and Andy, we and thenI think for what Matt said that

(02:07:18):
he does too. We see death and we see people
hurting, people dying, people struggling every single day that
we work. So we see a lot different aspect
of public than most people see. And several of y'all have said
something about how this is tragic and for for a normal

(02:07:41):
human being. I'm not saying that we're not
normal for, for a normal layperson.
This is this is something that somebody shouldn't ever have to
see. And unfortunately it's it's the
profession that I don't believe we just chose.
I believe it was it's it's a calling.
Any biblical person would say that what they do is a calling

(02:08:05):
it something that God kind of placed on the inside of them to
do or to pursue. And for me and Andy and what we
do, you have, you have to be a certain kind of person and not
to be hard or just blunt, but you have to be able.

(02:08:28):
We see, we see little babies die.
We have to deal with screaming parents and we have to deal with
certain, excuse me, certain things that most normal people
would say. I have PTSD after this or I have
to go see a psychiatrist after this because of the the tragedy
and the the things that to take place.

(02:08:50):
So, and that's just to put a little bit of behind of what we
we see on a day-to-day basis. So circling back to your
question, whether this was God or whether this was coincidence,
there's just too many, there's too many factors and the stars
just didn't happen to align thatday several years ago.

(02:09:11):
And to know that when we were leaving the scene and Corey was
in a flat line, he's an asystole.
There's no heart function. I know on TV people see the flat
line and they automatically go and clear, let's shock them.
That's totally false and that just doesn't happen.
But to have somebody come back from that cardiac rhythm, which

(02:09:34):
is death, that that doesn't happen.
And I mean, I'm not here to pushmy belief on anybody because
everybody has their own opinion.But it's hard for us to do what
we do and not grasp hold of how God really does orchestrate
things from our point of view, you know?

(02:09:55):
So that's just how we say it. So 100% miracle.
Thanks for your honest answer and the additional info there.
Appreciate that. And since I participated in
this, I have to respond as well.So the question to me is
coincidence or God? For me there is nothing close to
coincidence for this. There is every bit of God in

(02:10:18):
action for this. I'll leave it at that since I
think you guys have all outlinedso well all of the different
moving pieces. But for me, it's 100% got an
action type of moment. All right, guys, Well, let's do
final question for Corey and then we'll throw it out to the
group. Corey, how has your life changed
as a result? Of this, that's another really

(02:10:41):
good question, Mick. It's hard.
I think I've described it beforewhen I said, you know, I have a
hard time sometimes figuring outthat this really happened to me.
So, you know, I know obviously it it did happen and I said that
before, you know, prior to this event, I felt as though my life

(02:11:04):
was pretty good. I mean, I've been a Christian
for most of my life. I've lived that way.
Not had a lot of drama or stressin my life.
I've I've actually had a pretty easy life kind of up to that
point. I mean, there were a couple of
things that happened, like my youngest son being born in our
car. That was 1 crazy incident.
But anyway, that's another wholestory.

(02:11:25):
But yeah, my life was pretty easy up to that point.
And then after that happened, you know, and I've had four
years now to reflect on it and pray about it and talk to God
about it and try to figure out, you know, what am I supposed to
be doing? Why did you save my life?

(02:11:47):
Do you have something bigger forme to do?
You know, and I firmly believe that when when you pray to God,
he says one of three things. He says yes, he says no, or he
says wait. And I think maybe I'm still in
that waiting mode trying to figure out what do you have
planned for the rest of my life?Am I supposed to go do something
really big for you? Or, you know, what am I supposed

(02:12:09):
to do? So, you know, I'm kind of in
that mode right now, but you know, I certainly it gave me a
much better appreciation of lifebecause none of us are here
forever. We're all going to die.
It's a matter of how and when. So I do appreciate life every
day. I appreciate waking up every
day. And I mean, I think that's kind

(02:12:30):
of how I would summarize how howI've changed after it.
You know, again, my life was wasgood before, it's been good
after. You know, I certainly feel bad
for Paula because she's the one that took the brunt of all of
this. And I think she still has some
PTSD when stuff goes on. Like I was in a crash like a

(02:12:51):
year after or a week after movedinto this house, had to separate
his shoulder. But anyway, you know, that stuff
happens when you're on a bike. But anyway, I just think that,
you know, I'm kind of so I'm kind of doing OK.
I mean, I think I'm doing fine. And, and I do have more
appreciation of life and, and what it really means to live

(02:13:11):
and, and that God's given us only a number of days on this
earth and we just need to use itto the best that we can to, to
honor and please him. So I think that's that's my
short slash long answer to that.All right, well, we appreciate
the response. OK guys.
So it's the final question and it's a free for all to all of
you and it's the same one. How has your life changed?

(02:13:33):
Anybody that wants to respond iswelcome to.
Nobody necessarily needs to, butwe are glad to hear your
perspective. I'm, I'm going to go ahead and,
and jump in and this is what it's shown me is that if, if it
looks like you can help, you should help because there's a
chance you may be the only person that's there at a very

(02:13:55):
important time. It's not really a choice.
You may think you have a choice,but it's not really a choice.
Right. Anybody else have any thoughts
how your life has changed as a result of this?
Nick, can I just add one more thing to my?
Yeah. Go ahead and answer that
question, man. Yeah.
Yeah, this is just a story that just happened like literally 2
Saturdays ago. And I told to Nick about this

(02:14:15):
already. He knows about it, but I was
doing a Saturday morning group ride and you know, it's normal
Saturday morning group ride. And we were fine.
And then got it kind of toward the end of it, there was a group
of us who were in the front. Another guy gotten dropped from
the group. And so he was taking a shortcut
coming back into town. And we were going up the same
road and we noticed something inthe middle of the road.

(02:14:36):
There were a bunch of cars stopped.
And we were like, what's going on out there?
Well, we get out there and this guy who was 69 years old had
been hit from behind by a big truck and he was laying on the
side of the road and he was unconscious.
And he was kind of probably, he was convulsing, I think, like I
was probably doing the same thing.
And he was totally out of it, looked like it didn't look good

(02:14:59):
at all. And so I just stopped and prayed
right there for him. And you know, there was not much
we could do except somebody called 911.
They showed up and they end up having to life flight him out of
there, which when the helicoptershowed up, I was like, this is
not good at all. And so when he was laying there

(02:15:19):
on the ground, I found his cell phone and I actually picked it
up. And I was the one I called his
wife and told her that her I said, is your, your husband a
cyclist? And she said, yes.
I said, he's just been struck bya truck and they're taking off
in the ambulance. And she was hysterical, probably
just like Paula was when she gotthe call about me.
And again, that was another thing where I was on the other

(02:15:41):
side of the story, just like with my dad at my house.
And I was just like, I can't believe this is happening to me
like again. And so they took him off and
unfortunately, he did not make it.
He passed away like this past week.
So I just want to throw that outas just another part of my story

(02:16:02):
that, you know, it was not coincidence that I was there
that day. And it's terrible that he passed
away. But you know, I just want to add
that that piece in there if that's OK.
Yeah, that's tough too. Sad for that family.
Well, guys, sort of last call here on how your life has

(02:16:25):
changed or been impacted by the Corey Eubanks incident.
Nick, I'll just say quickly, I mean, I just, I think it's just
really reinforced for me. You can't ever underestimate the
power of people taking action and coming together to influence
an outcome. I mean, I know I mentioned in my
response to your first question,and I do feel very strongly that

(02:16:46):
all of us were put there for a reason to take an action.
But the action is still a choicethat people have to take.
You get put in situations all the time where you can choose to
take an action or not. And I I just think it's
reinforced with me that when yousee something or you're
experienced something or you're put in a situation and you're
given a choice to make, that youmake a choice that you feel like

(02:17:07):
can out, you know, help somebodyor influence an outcome in a
positive way. Yeah, I agree.
And. Just realize how fragile really
everything is, right? You happy and appreciative of
what you are today and what you could influence and, and and
move moving forward. All right, I've become a better
person, I think in that respect,just realizing the fragility of

(02:17:31):
of everything, of life, of everything, especially as I get
older, right, approaching 50, mykids are getting older and it's
just just be a good person. You're right, doesn't always
have to be the religious aspectsif you just always be a good
person and like the end just said, help help someone.

(02:17:53):
I think well put here for a reason, but we don't know what
that reason is yet. We'll find out one day.
It's almost life prior to this event and after this event and a
little bit of that coincides with, you know, you know, COVID
and I believe that's very same day.
And when we're driving back, we wife had made, we've made an

(02:18:16):
offer in a lake house, which we ended up getting.
So, so it's a lot of things thathappen in that that are tied
together, which has really, definitely changed my
perspective. And just slow, slow down, look
around and you never know who don't just assume things.
You never know who can be helpful, who can improve your

(02:18:39):
life in your in your immediate surroundings.
Just looking at life a little bit more holistically and being
more of a believer. You can train and you can
prepare for all you want. There's always going to be that
last piece that that extra secret sauce, that extra higher
power that has to come into playfor things to align.
I really believe that. Yeah, right on.

(02:19:02):
It just gives you hope. And everything we were going
through with COVID, it just gaveme more hope and humanity.
I mean, just everyone's willingness to jump in.
We spent 45 minutes of our, you know, Saturday helping someone
outlook at what came out of this.
I mean, it's just immense benefits.
So I'd love telling the story ofjust how much of an impact this

(02:19:26):
has had and just just tell us changed my perspective in life
And, and, and people like there's always something out
there that you can learn and youcan find something new.
People, you know, people you never thought you'd have
something in common with end up having a lot more in common than
you realized in. And it was interesting because
you just made it a point a moment ago about, you know, we

(02:19:47):
spent roughly 45 minutes and yetthat changed a lifetime.
You know, it's funny, like I'm 55 this year and we've seen like
in our demographic, seen a lot of people that have had.

(02:20:10):
Heart issues, you know, I guess we're just at that age, like one
of my best friends right over here in Dunedin had a heart
attack a couple years ago. And one of the takeaways, I
think I learned from him and theinstance with Corey, it's like
be smart, be proactive about monitoring your own health.
You know, heart scans are are like super easy to get now.

(02:20:36):
Modern medicine is just getting better and better.
There's you know, you should be able to know what's going on
with your body to to and, you know, just like Corey described
his familial genetics, like my buddy, his own father had had a
heart attack and series. So genetics are real, you know,

(02:20:58):
and if you're predisposed, you should be on top of it, whether
you're 40 or 50 or whatever. So that's one big take away for
me in all of this health walls. Yeah, and I'll just say, add to
that every single person I tell this my story to.
If it's a guy, I'm like #1 do you have family history #2 have

(02:21:24):
you ever gotten your heart checked for any potential
issues? And I tell them I try to
encourage them. Look, go do something.
Don't just sit back and then think that you may seemingly be
healthy, but maybe you're not, you know, because none of us
really know. Exactly.
So I always encourage people just go good, good heart scan or
whatever you want to call it. You get your heart checked by

(02:21:45):
somebody. And, you know, because it's just
like John said. I mean, that's, yeah, that's an
important thing to do for sure. And I never went to the doctor
part of this incident. Like, I've not been a doctor in
probably 15 years. Not that the doctor would have
picked up on something like this.
But nonetheless, I think it is. It's good to be proactive with
this kind of thing. I mean, I'm, I'm grateful we

(02:22:09):
have new friends and Paula and Rick Corey and just to, you
know, be a small part of their life and, and how they have told
the story is it's been an honor to be honest with you.
Yeah, super, super cool. I think right after Corey got
out of the hospital, it was, I don't know, two weeks after the

(02:22:33):
incident, he came up to the station and we, we got to take a
picture with him. We got to see him.
Andy's got pictures on his phoneof the whole thing.
And then a year after that, whenhe, the first time he placed
first back in his age group, I've got another picture with
him almost a year to the day of his incident.

(02:22:53):
So all these things have been super cool and like Andy said,
like we've gained friends out ofthem now.
Corey and Paul are super, super sweet people and we'd do
anything for him. So this has just been it's an
experience that I wouldn't wish on anybody.
But again, the good out of it has been pretty, pretty cool to

(02:23:14):
see so. Yeah, that's wonderful.
Really, really cool stuff. Yeah, and you guys are always
forever going to be part of my story.
So I'm I'm doing it again. I'm sorry.
I get it, it's OK. But just thank you guys for

(02:23:41):
everything you did. For me, hey Corey, another thing
that I do want to say to you is a second ago when you were
saying you're kind of wondering what your purpose is now and
why, why you felt like the Lord was gracious enough to give you
another day. You know, one thing that is cool
just for you to be for your knowledge is I teach EMT classes

(02:24:04):
too. I'm I've taught a couple past
couple years and when we get to the section of cardiac stuff and
CPR, you are always the story that I tell.
So you are, you are the real life, the real life story that
I'm able to use to teach them how to do it, what to do.

(02:24:26):
And especially when we do CPR classes, I can't tell you, I
can't even count how many times I've already used your story.
So if it helps one other person knowing bystander CPR or while
we're teaching EMT classes to bea better provider, I mean, to me
that that's worth it in my opinion.
That's awesome. Yeah.
Thank you for that. I mean, that's encouraging for

(02:24:48):
me to hear that. And yeah, I mean, if that's how
God wants to use my story, then then that's great.
I think that's that's awesome. Thank you.
Well, guys, I want to end on a what I think is a quite light
note, particularly because, you know, all is well.
It ends well. So Lassiter, tell us about the

(02:25:12):
conversation that you and John had about rescue breathing.
So while John was in CPR and I was at that holding Corey's
head, John looks at me. I don't know if he's I think he
may have like paused for a second and he says, should we do

(02:25:34):
mouth to mouth? And I just look at him and I'm
like, just keep going, like justkeep impressions.
Like, you know, you know, maybe now I do mouth to mouth.
But I, I was, I was relieved because I didn't know if Corey

(02:25:55):
had COVID. I was like, oh man, yeah.
I didn't want to, you know, to catch COVID or whatever else.
I didn't know Corey so. But maybe you know now.
Like I think I'd be convinced todo mouth to mouth.
Well, I want to thank you guys for coming together, for

(02:26:16):
creating this memento for the family, for capturing so many
perspectives here. Thank you so much for your
opinions on things, for your recollections of things.
It's been a real pleasure havingyou guys on, so thank you a
bunch. That for me.
Yeah, thanks for putting it together, Mick.

(02:26:36):
Glad to do it. Well, there you have it.
Was it coincidence or God? You decide for yourself, but I
believe you just heard a story for His glory.
When you look is powered by the stories that guest share.
So if you have a story to tell, let us know by going to

(02:26:58):
whenyoulook.com and click on Be a Guest or click on the link in
the description below. Please subscribe to the channel.
Like this video? Tell us what you think in the
comments and share it with somebody that will be impacted
by the story. Thanks and God bless.

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