Connected for life: Man who collapsed at Toronto Marathon meets rescuers

Extended: Surviving a marathon collapse Gregg Lowe recalls the moments leading up to his collapse at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon, and the treatment he received afterwards.

A 29-year-old man who nearly lost his life after running the Toronto Marathon finally got a chance to meet the people who saved him.

Gregg Lowe crossed the finish line in three hours and fifty-seven minutes. He remembers running the last kilometre of the marathon, thinking it was easy.

But just steps past the finish line, Lowe collapsed, smashing his head against the pavement.

“I don’t remember crossing the line,” he said. “I don’t remember anything.”

Lowe had no vital signs. He was clinically dead.

Two nearby paramedic students from Centennial College who witnessed Lowe’s fall ran over and jumped into action.

“Things were happening so quick, I honestly wasn’t really sure what was going on,” said Quentin Ha, one of the students.

“I don’t think we had time to kind of get nervous about it,” said Laura Holden, the other students. “We kind of just went into it and did what we were taught. I didn’t really think about it until after.”

The two students performed CPR on Lowe, until paramedics arrived and restarted his heart with a defibrillator. Lowe was then was rushed to hospital.

After spending just over a week in hospital, Lowe was released from St. Michael’s Hospital with a small defibrillator implanted in his body. He is already back at work.

And on Wednesday, Lowe got the chance to meet and thank those who saved him.

“Thank you so much,” he said to the four paramedics, as he shook their hands.

“It’s not every day that you get to say thank you to the person who saved your life,” Lowe said. “I think it’s so important that their work is acknowledged and just to have the opportunity to shake their hand and say thank you.”

Those who save lives for a living say it’s rare that they get the chance to reconnect with the people they’ve helped.

“We touch their lives for five minutes, usually in the worst possible day they’re having, and then that’s it,” said Kimberly Clarence, one of the paramedics who was on the scene.

Now, Lowe and the group of people who helped him say they’re connected for life.

“He survived, he’s good, he’s going on with his life and maybe he’ll be famous,” Clarence said. “I saved that guy.”

“A new appreciation for life”

Lowe says he remembers running most of the marathon -- all except for the last 200 meters. In hospital, he watched a video taken at the finish line to check if he actually crossed.

“My heart went into a weird rhythm, and then it stopped,” Lowe said.

Lowe says he never saw the so-called “white light” when his heart stopped, but had “very trippy dreams.” He attributes this to the medication he was given in hospital.

“It’s not something people generally go through, dying and coming back to life,” Lowe said in an interview with CTV Toronto. “It’s a bit weird, even saying it now, it hasn’t sunk in … I don’t know if it ever will.”

Before the marathon, Lowe had no health issues. The Toronto-based actor calls himself “a pretty active guy.”

Lowe says he goes for regular runs and works out, eats healthy, doesn’t drink or smoke, and goes to bed early most nights. By all accounts, he is a health role model.

“Some people might see this and think, well he’s healthy, eats well, doesn’t smoke and drink, and that’s what happened to him. So why should I be healthy? But having that lifestyle has helped me recover so quickly.”

Lowe says he has always had a positive outlook on life, but nearly dying has made him “treasure life” a little bit more.

“It’s given me a new appreciation for life and how fragile it is, how fragile all life is, and how quickly something can be taken away.”

“I’ve stopped planning too far ahead,” Lowe says jokingly.