US Man Suffers Heart Attack While Driving, Crashes Car Outside Cardiologist's Office

Jeff Geraci, a 64-year-old man in Virginia, had a heart attack while driving home from a workout class. Fortunately, he crashed his car right next to the medical office of Dr Deepak Talreja, who is a cardiologist with Sentara Health, the New York Post reported. The incident reportedly happened last month when Geraci suddenly stopped breathing, lost control of his vehicle, and swerved across multiple lanes before hitting a sign and stopping in a parking lot.

"I sat in the car because something didn't quite feel right," he told WTVR. "I sipped some coffee, and I was going to sit there and close my eyes for a few minutes. But instead, I decided to drive home."

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Dr Talreja, who was on the phone with 911, rushed to Geraci's car and found him unresponsive and not breathing.

"When I got to your car, what I saw was that the windshield was shattered and your airbags were deployed, and it was hard to see you because you were surrounded by airbags and a shattered windshield," Dr Talreja said, while speaking to Geraci.

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"You weren't breathing, and you didn't have a pulse - SCD, sudden cardiac death. And what that means is the heart just isn't doing the job, and so it's a form of death," Talreja explained.

"But fortunately, we got things restarted very quickly, and so God was watching out." Quick medical intervention was crucial; if help hadn't arrived within eight minutes, Geraci likely wouldn't have survived.

"My widow maker, the lower anterior descending artery was 95% blocked, and the upper part, and it was 90% blocked on the lower part," Geraci told the outlet.

While recalling the moment he woke up after the attack, he said, "The confusion when I woke up with things in my arm and people running around, it was like a dream, a muddled dream, and foggy. I asked the nurse what happened, and he said, 'You have a heart attack. You crashed your car."

Dr Talreja said it was divine intervention and a timely medical response that saved Geraci's life.