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Runner in marathon collapses, dies

A middle-aged runner in the Twin Cities Marathon collapsed Sunday at the 6-mile mark of the race and died later at Hennepin County Medical Center, most likely from a heart attack, race officials said.

Tweede dode
A middle-aged runner in the Twin Cities Marathon collapsed Sunday at the 6-mile mark of the race and died later at Hennepin County Medical Center, most likely from a heart attack, race officials said. It was the second death of a runner in the history of the event.A second man also collapsed Sunday at 11:30 a.m. just short of the finish line. But he was resuscitated with an external defibrillator machine that got his heart beating again, and was treated at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, race officials said.

Uitputting
Dr. Bill Roberts, medical director for the marathon, said that research has shown the risk of cardiac arrest to be about 1 in 50,000 marathon finishers. The risk of death is about 1 in 200,000 he said, citing information gleaned from the Twin Cities Marathon and the Marine Corps Marathon databases combined.”We had a pretty good response time, so were pretty confident we did all we could,” he said. “But it does happen during marathons.”The first time a death occurred was in 1989 when a 40-year-old Bloomington man collapsed and died after crossing the finish line. It was his first marathon. The number of hear attack deaths would most likely be much higher but for the number of external defibrillators that are now routine at such events. Roberts said that on Sunday there were close to 40 defibrillators, one at every aid station starting with the 11th one on the route. In addition, there are five first aid teams with defibrillators spread out over the course, and a golf cart operated by emergency technicians from Hennepin County Medical Center in the tighter areas of the course. An ambulance drove the course in the middle of the pack of runners, Roberts said. Roberts said that it an unexpectedly busy day in the medical tent. The humidity was low, but the temperatures warmed quickly in the morning. He said there were about half-a-dozen people who were treated for heat exhaustion.

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