Tyler Moon, 25, of Eden Prairie, opted to have a faith-filled message reading “Jesus Saves” on his running bib instead of his name, not realising that a man named Jesus “Jesse” Bueno would literally save him, after he collapsed during the Medtronic Twin Cities 10 Mile event.
"So, before the race, my name was originally on the bib. One day I got a thought -- I thought it was from God and that it should be a profession of faith -- and changed it to 'Jesus Saves', so that another runner or someone in the audience would see it ... that Jesus saves us for eternity," Moon told Fox News.
Moon, who works for General Mills in logistics, enjoys running, and although reportedly not quite ready for a marathon this year, felt confident he could do the 10-mile race, as he joined other runners at 7 a.m. in downtown Minneapolis for the Medtronic TC 10 Mile run on 6 October.
His parents and fiancee Amy Greene were cheering him on.
“I was feeling great that day. I was pretty excited to get up and do it. I’d been looking forward to it for a really long time,” said the former college football player, who had no history of heart trouble.
The runner’s watch recorded him doing eight-minute miles, just as anticipated, yet after the first mile Moon claims he remembers nothing.
By the eighth mile, on Summit Avenue in St. Paul, things went scarily wrong, as for about 10 seconds his heart was not pumping blood and he experienced a heart attack, collapsing on his left side.
Tyler Moon suffered fractured bones in his face, a concussion and scraped up his left knee and hand.
Doctors would tell him later that he had experienced ventricular tachycardia, a fast, irregular heartbeat.
Right beside the fallen runner was Jesus Bueno, who goes by the nickname Jesse, but said his legal name is Jesus, pronounced “Hay-soos”.
“He just collapsed. He basically fell straight down,” said Bueno, who is a certified registered nurse anaesthetist who’s helped perform CPR on patients in hospital.
Bueno, 43, dropped down beside Moon and told someone to call 911 as he tried to determine if Moon had a pulse.
“We’ve got to start CPR,” he told his colleague, who was also running and had stopped to help.
The colleague started on chest compressions while Bueno used a mask supplied by a race attendant to breathe for Moon.
After the paramedics arrived, Jesus Bueno continued helping, putting the patches of the defibrillator on Moon, who was subsequently rushed to Regions Hospital.
Bueno then completed the race.
“It was surreal,” he said later.
Concerned for Moon, Bueno eventually contacted him through Facebook.
“I was just glad that he was good and that he’s going to be fine,” Bueno said.
Moon, who is still recovering, said that his heart is fine and that what happened to him was an anomaly.
He said he’s grateful to be alive and to all who helped save him, and he can’t help but wonder about the significance of the words on his racing bib.
“Amy and I are Christians and on my race bib I wanted to have a statement so that when people saw me run by, it pointed them to Jesus. We’re just happy God had it happen where it did, where there were all these wonderful people that stepped up. Like I’ve said, I went for a run, then all of a sudden, a bunch of strangers saved my life," said Moon.
Netizens sprang to action to remark on the incredible timing and happy outcome of the incident.