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Stanton Truxillo recovering from heart attack
When Stanton Truxillo collapsed in the road while bicycling last month, someone leaped out of a car and performed cardio pulmonary resuscitation on him.
Truxillo, former president of the Austin Cycling Association, is home now, recovering after quadruple bypass surgery. But he still doesn’t know who kept his heart pumping in those crucial moments after he suffered a massive heart attack.
Truxillo was pedaling along a 40-mile route from Mozart’s coffee shop on Lake Austin Boulevard to Creedmore and back on Aug. 3 when he started feeling un-well.
“It was nothing specific, maybe a little heartburn,” Truxillo said this week by phone from his home.
The group had strung out on Old Lockhart Road when he told some of his fellow cyclists that he was going to stop and call for a ride home.
For Truxillo, that’s unheard of. His buddies knew something was seriously wrong.
A few seconds later, Truxillo knew he had to stop immediately. That’s when he blacked out, collapsing onto another cyclist and crashing to the ground on Slaughter Road.
Someone unclipped him from his pedals. None of the cyclists with him knew CPR. While one of them called 911, another ran into traffic and started stopping cars, asking if anyone knew CPR.
Someone did.
That person jumped out of his car and came to Truxillo’s aid.
“It was so fast that he was starting CPR before the 911 operator even answered the phone,” Truxillo says.
The man was performing CPR when the first emergency vehicle arrived and continued pumping Truxillo’s heart for him until a second emergency vehicle showed up.
Then he stepped back into his car and drove anonymously away.
“I have no idea who this Good Samaritan is,” Truxillo says.
Truxillo was rushed to St. David’s South Austin Hospital, where doctors put him into an induced coma for a day and a half. A week after he came out of the coma, he had quadruple bypass surgery.
“By all odds I should have been dead,” he says. “But doctors said my fitness had a major bit to play in my surviving.”
Truxillo, 69, has been cycling his entire adult life. He started as a child, commuted by bike through graduate school and his first few jobs, and raced for 15 or 20 years. He never stopped biking.
He had a history of high cholesterol and had been taking statins for the last five years.
Doctors tell him that after a few months of rehabilitation he should be back to normal. He hopes to be back on his bicycle in a few months.
And he hopes to find out who gave him CPR that Tuesday morning, so he can thank him.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment Categories: cycling
Comments
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By Wes Robinson
September 3, 2010 1:08 PM | Link to this
Stanton isn’t the only one who would like to thank this Good Samaritan. Stanton has done so much and continues to do so much for cycling in Austin that the entire cycling community owes a debt of gratitude to the anonymous hero. If you are out there, thanks!
By Gail Spann, League of American Bicyclists
September 7, 2010 3:24 PM | Link to this
OMG! I had no idea that Stanton went through all this, just now found out. My best wishes go to Stanton and his family. What a wonderful man. Cheers! Gail Spann
By Gail Spann, League of American Bicyclists
September 7, 2010 3:26 PM | Link to this
OMG! I had no idea that Stanton went through all this, just now found out. My best wishes go to Stanton and his family. What a wonderful man. Cheers! Gail Spann
By Gail Spann, League of American Bicyclists
September 7, 2010 3:28 PM | Link to this
I wish to let Stanton know that we are rooting for his recovery up here in the Dallas area. I have been a long standing member of the ACA even though I live far away. Stanton is one of my favorite people and just now found out about this. Best wishes for recovery! The Spann family.
By Rob D'Amico
September 8, 2010 9:55 AM | Link to this
Indeed, Stanton has always been there for cyclists, and he’s a hell of a great guy to boot. Best wishes to Stanton…hope to hear you whistling back in the saddle again soon!
By ron
September 8, 2010 7:36 PM | Link to this
fyi
By Harold Brueckner
September 9, 2010 10:18 AM | Link to this
Cycling is good for the health but when one is in their 50’s and 60’s one needs to have a good proactive cardiologist. I biked over 8,700 miles in 2005 including 2 PAC Tours. In January, 2006 at the end of a 70 mile ride I felt nauseous. Twice I leaned over my bike to feel better. The third “attack” was when I felt as Stanton must have felt - just felt bad all over and weak. I stopped riding, laid down beside the road (I was alone). One of the individuals who stopped and asked how I was called 911. I refused medical attention as I was feeling better. By then my spouse was there and insisted I see my GP. We drove to his office (1/2 mile) and I had the real heart attack occur on his examining table. He immediately administered drugs to clear the blockage and I was flown to Austin Heart where the following day I had an angioplasty & stent. I was back on my bike in 2 weeks. The GP that injected the clot dissolving drugs told me 9 months earlier that I was in too good of shape to have a heart cath as I had requested. Had I gone to a good proactive cardiologist, things might have been different. It makes no difference as to the shape one is in or if one is on statins (I was not at the time). What makes the difference is to be examined by a good proactive cardiologist and have that physician look at your arteries!
Way to go, Stanton! You survived the “Big One”! God Bless You and Suzie in your continuing work for the ACA!!!