Right Place, Right Time: Heart Surgeon Saves Man in Nature, Then the OR — Twice

Lightening didn’t strike once for Corey Adams, MD.

Last June, Adams, a cardiac surgeon at the University of Calgary’s Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta, found himself coming off the same hiking trail as a man who needed CPR. He attended to the man until first responders arrived, and performed the man’s heart operation days later.

The experience was remarkable and rewarding for its positive outcome, and one that Adams told MedPage Today he thought would never happen again — until it did.

Adams spoke about the experiences in an interview on Remembrance Day in Canada. He said that seeing patients get to experience another holiday is what it’s all about.

Physicians spend most of the time thinking about the little details, what can go wrong next, Adams said. “Maybe we should celebrate the wins more than we do.”

Adams’s unique series of circumstances began shortly after he and his family moved to the area. The surgeon and his wife, Jennifer Adams, MD, a gynecologist, were excited to enjoy the scenic Rocky Mountains with their two young sons. However, while finishing a hike, a passerby exclaimed that a man had collapsed just up the path.

Adams and his wife initiated CPR on the man, Darrell Parker, 60, until first responders arrived.

Parker was taken to the hospital where Adams worked, and test results showed multiple vessel blockages. After speaking with Parker’s wife and son, Adams ultimately performed a quintuple bypass.

Now, Parker is back to “doing what he wants to do in life,” Adams said. He is also a “big advocate for CPR.”

This past August, a similar set of events unfolded, which seemed as unlikely as hitting the lottery twice.

Adams and his family had been out for another day of activities, driving past a path along a river. A man was running down the path, and Jennifer saw him collapse.

The physicians pulled over, and began administering CPR, Adams recalled. First responders arrived soon after, and took the man to the hospital where Adams happened to be on call.

The man, Eric McVeigh, was only in his 30s; he had been born with a heart defect, but had been feeling fine and staying active up until his collapse.

Days after he administered CPR to McVeigh, Adams performed an aortic valve replacement on him. McVeigh has since returned to running and playing ice hockey.

Of his involvement in the two cases, Adams noted, “The odds … it’s astronomically low.”

In fact, when Adams and his wife began administering CPR to McVeigh, the pair “just sort of looked at each other” — as physicians and partners — and couldn’t believe it was happening again, Adams said.

Asked if it ever crosses his mind whether it could occur yet again, Adams said, “I can’t see it happening again.”

However, “people say things happen in three’s,” he added.

Despite the happy outcomes, the experiences were harrowing. Adams said that the heart surgery had been the easy part: “That is my domain of comfort.”

It’s the out-of-hospital cardiac arrest that was the hard part, he noted. He said he’d remembered to remain calm, and do what he’d been trained to do.

The fortune of having a physician in just the right place at just the right time hasn’t been lost on Adams’s patients.

“I feel incredibly lucky that someone was there to give me CPR [who] just happened to be an expert,” McVeigh told the Canadian Press.

Adams and his colleagues have been thrilled to see such positive results in two men who unexpectedly found themselves in dire circumstances.

“It’s just nice to hear that, gosh, medicine does work,” Adams said.