In good company

A strong faith and a good team of medical professionals is hard to beat. And if you are a runner about to suffer a heart attack, there's probably no better place to be than in the midst of a large group of running enthusiasts -- who happen to be doctors and nurses -- and close to the MUSC Heart and Vascular Center.

Steve Aceto, 54, of Montreat, N.C., will attest to that after surviving a heart attack during Saturday's Cooper River Bridge Run.

Aceto, an attorney, was running alongside Robert Barker, his childhood friend and neighbor who is a general practitioner and running enthusiast. Aceto's son Bill was ahead of his father. Aceto and Barker had made it across the bridge and were on Meeting Street at about the five-mile marker when Aceto fell motionless in the street. Barker quickly noticed his absence and turned back to render aid to his friend, who had suffered a heart attack five years ago. Running behind them were a number of other doctors and nurses, many of them connected with the Medical University of South Carolina.

When they began attending to Aceto, they could not detect a pulse. They began administering CPR and called for an automated external defibrillator, which administered a shock that got Aceto's heart beating again. An ambulance had been summoned, and they were able to get him to MUSC for treatment within minutes of the incident. Simon Watson, an emergency room physician from MUSC, was one of those runners closest to Aceto and called the hospital so the cardiac care team, headed by Eric Powers, could be assembled quickly. Powers said that within 72 minutes from the time Aceto collapsed the team had cleared the blockage, placed two stents in his artery and sent him on his way to a room in the Critical Care Unit.

Aceto said the bridge was no big deal, that back home in the mountains of North Carolina "we have speed bumps steeper than that." But Aceto's wife, Fran, had voiced some concerns to Barker, and he agreed to join them in the race. Aceto said he works out regularly, has never had high cholesterol, doesn't smoke or drink. But he has a family history of heart problems.

"She asked him if he would hang back," Aceto said. "(Barker) denied his inner competitor. I'm grateful for that because he was there when I collapsed."

Aceto said it was a wonderful run.

"I got over the bridge and back down. I got a good bit of the way down Meeting Street and was just about to the turn at the 5-mile marker. It was like flipping off a switch. I didn't have any sensation of falling. Just a sharp pain and oblivion.

"My next memory was looking up and seeing a bunch of people I did not know who seemed very glad to see me. I found out later they had been doing CPR on me for about 10 minutes, including my dear friend who apparently pushed a beautiful emergency room nurse out of the way to do it. He and I are going to have words about that."

Barker said that when he saw Aceto in the road he ran back, turned Aceto onto his back, grabbed his head and began yelling to him, trying to get a response.

"We had been talking, and then I looked to my left and he wasn't there," said Barker, who earlier had used his cell phone camera to take photos of Aceto from front and back on the bridge and texted them to Aceto's wife to assure her things were going OK. As he was performing CPR, Barker was thinking about having to call Fran and, simultaneously about how he and Aceto were going to get a DNF -- did not finish -- in the race. He said he placed his hand on his friend's forehead and began praying.

"All of a sudden, his right hand moved. And then somebody said he's breathing. He said, 'I need to get up.' It was like he came back from the dead."

Aceto said technically he was dead, and he plans to frame his race number, stained with blood from where he hit the pavement, alongside the printout from the automated external defibrillator to prove he ran the race.

In all likelihood, Aceto will be heading home today with his family. His ribs are sore from the CPR, but he said he thought his heart might be better than ever.

Powers said there was no damage to the heart muscle and that Aceto could resume normal activities within a few days and even begin working out in a couple of weeks.

"The time was critical," Powers said. "If this had happened 10 years ago before systems like this were set up, he would not have survived. We're very proud of what we've accomplished here at MUSC, but what saved his life is what was done (when Aceto fell). Five more minutes? He probably would not have survived. If he had been running where there were not people to do this, he probably would not have survived."

Aceto said there wasn't time to be frightened, that he had trust in God as well as the professionals who were treating him.

"They put me in. They obviously knew what they were doing. They had a plan and they executed it," he said. "There are just a wonderful, professional bunch. ... There are so many remarkable coincidences in this situation that cannot be attributed to anything other than the heavenly Father was wanting to accomplish something. He gives very good gifts. Some are strange. I've had many good gifts in my life. I had a second chance. Actually, I guess this is a third chance.

"I happened to be among the right people," he said, "at the right place and at the right time."

Reach Tommy Braswell at 937-5591 or braswell@postandcourier.com.