Summarized by Eileen Bell

LDS Bishop Collapses During 10K run

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- A recent trip home to Utah for LDS Bishop Larry Storrs was a much more dramatic journey than he had ever counted on. Bishop Storrs and his wife, E.J., had planned on attending his 45 year high school reunion in American Fork. Instead, he spent the time in hospital after collapsing during the Deseret News/Granite Furniture 10K run.

The major coronary he suffered may have been triggered by what Sister Storrs calls his "strange heart rhythm." Doctors had said it was "just the way his heart beat", but he had been having some shortness of breath since last February, when he had a hernia operation.

What was lucky for him, was that his collapse took place in front of medical personnel who knew what to do to help him. Surgical intensive care nurse Suzy Putz and burn unit health unit coordinator Tracy Lewis both work at Salt Lake City's University Hospital. They and bystander Gary Howell were able to resusicate Bishop Storrs twice using CPR.

Suzy Putz says, "I knew he had a big problem. Your arms are not naturally beneath you. You kind of collect yourself, even when something's broken." Doctors at University Hospital performed a double bypass on Bishop Storrs after finding out that one of his primary arteries was almost entirely blocked.

After a visit with their grandchildren in Utah, the Storrs will return home to Rockville, Maryland. Before leaving the hospital though, Sister Storrs had tearful words for her husband's rescuers. "Thank you for saving my husband's life."

Source:
Runner finds right place to die - and live again
Deseret News 1Aug00 D2
By Lois M. Collins: Deseret News staff writer
[Submitted by Jane Dumont]