A 64-year-old man from Virginia is thankful to be alive after having a heart attack and crashing his car near a cardiologist’s office. Luckily, the doctor was nearby and helped save his life.
In August, Jeff Geraci felt unwell after working out at the gym and decided to drive home, CBS affiliate WTVR reported. While on First Colonial Road in Virginia Beach, he stopped breathing.
“The confusion when I woke up with things in my arm and people running around, it was like a dream, a muddled dream, and foggy,” Geraci told the outlet. “I asked the nurse what happened, and he said, ‘You have a heart attack. You crashed your car.’ “
Geraci, a financial planner whose family has a history of heart problems, crossed multiple lanes of traffic before crashing into a business sign and stopping in a parking lot. Remarkably, he didn’t hit another vehicle during the incident, according to WTVR.
Dr. Deepak Talreja, chief of cardiology for Sentara Health, was at his office nearby when he heard the crash.
“I sprinted over there, calling 911 on my phone,” Talreja told the outlet in a joint interview with Geraci. “When I got to your car, the windshield was shattered, the airbags were deployed, and it was hard to see you because you were surrounded by airbags and a broken windshield.”
The 64-year-old wasn’t breathing and had no pulse when Talreja arrived. The doctor described his condition as “sudden cardiac death.”
“What that means is the heart just isn’t doing its job, so it’s a form of death,” Talreja told WTVR. “But luckily, we got things restarted very quickly, and so God was watching out.”
According to a Facebook post by Sentara Health, Geraci had suffered a “massive heart attack.”
The doctor was the “first on the scene, delivering CPR for more than [eight] minutes,” the organization wrote. “If it weren’t for Dr. Talreja’s quick actions, he would not have survived.”
Talreja spoke about how important fast action is in such emergencies.
“So if he’d gone eight minutes or so without CPR and blood flow, we could probably restart the heart for another 10 minutes, but the brain wouldn’t recover, and he wouldn’t be with us today,” Talreja said, according to the outlet.
The Virginia Beach Police Department, Sentara Health, and Geraci did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment.
Geraci later found out that his “widow maker” artery was 90% or more blocked in several sections. He encourages others to check their cholesterol and plans to make the most of his second chance at life, WTVR reported.
“It’s such a testimony of God’s greatness, of all the things that had to happen to keep me alive,” he told the outlet. “It’s a miracle. God was there, and thank God Dr. Talreja was there.”
Sentara Health also praised the cardiologist.
“We send Jeff our best wishes for a full, healthy recovery,” the health care provider wrote, “and express our deepest gratitude to Dr. Talreja, Sentara Cardiology Specialists, and the Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital care teams for their dedication to saving lives every day.”
