Magic Words

Magic words: "...CPR was performed and a defibrillator was used" It makes a huge difference!

Runner in downtown Duluth race revived after suffering cardiac arrest
Gene Curnow, 67, of Saginaw, a veteran racer and race organizer, suffered a cardiac arrest after finishing the All City Mile run Sunday.
By: News Tribune staff, Duluth News Tribune

Gene Curnow, 67, of Saginaw, a veteran racer and race organizer, suffered a cardiac arrest after finishing the All City Mile run Sunday.

He was attended to at the finish line by paramedics, race volunteers and a fellow runner, and was revived and taken to the cardiac intensive care unit at St. Luke’s hospital. He was being kept overnight for tests, said his wife, Barb.

Curnow has completed more than 200 marathons and ultramarathons (races longer than 26.2 miles) and has worked, with his wife, in putting on races in the area, including the Minnesota Voyageur Trail Ultramarathon 50-Miler in Carlton.

However, in three of the past four years he’s been slowed by Lyme disease, and there is a family history of heart disease, Barb Curnow said.

Gene Curnow finished Sunday’s mile race in 8 minutes, 16 seconds and was talking with runners afterward when he became lightheaded and fell to the ground. CPR was performed and a defibrillator was used, and he was alert when taken by ambulance to St. Luke’s. He had finished the 2011 Grandma’s Marathon in 5:28:05 on June 18.