A Triathlete’s Life Is Saved by CPR and Tanner’s Heart Care Team

On a Friday night in late summer of August 2025, Jason Speer did what he had done many times before. He put the bicycle rack on his truck. He was getting ready for a long Saturday ride.

Speer and his friend, Jimmy, were training for another Ironman. It was a routine.

"When we're training for an Ironman event or a triathlon, we normally ride every Saturday morning," said Speer.

They set out for a 50-mile ride but never made it past mile 11.

"We were on mile 10 or 11 on Plowshare Road," said Speer. "I was riding beside Jimmy, and he looked over at me. He said that I looked like I reached down to get something on my bike, and I just fell over and crashed into him."

In that instant, Speer had gone into cardiac arrest.

At Tanner Health, when someone has had a heart attack, a "heart alert" is called. Christopher Arant, MD, an interventional cardiologist with Tanner Heart & Vascular Specialists and Tanner Heart Care, remembers getting that call.

At first, the details were few.

"I heard that the patient was on the Carrollton Greenbelt and that he had a cardiac arrest," said Dr. Arant. "That's what we were told."

Speer's friend tried to pull him out of the road, as a woman named Kenzie Bunker was driving out of her nearby neighborhood. Bunker performed seven or eight minutes of CPR while they waited on the ambulance to arrive.

Emergency crews arrived and placed an AED on Speer's chest. The device detected a deadly heart rhythm and delivered a shock. EMS got back what doctors call "return of spontaneous circulation." Speer had a pulse again.

By the time Dr. Arant reached the emergency room, Speer was on a breathing machine.

They moved fast. A heart catheterization showed the problem.

"The right coronary artery for Mr. Speer was 100% blocked with a blood clot," said Dr. Arant. "We were able to get in there and very quickly get a wire past the blockage, balloon that open and put stents in to open up that artery."

Later, doctors found significant blockage in his left anterior descending (LAD) artery, which is the main artery of the heart. The team brought him back to the cath lab before he left the hospital and opened up that artery with more stents.

In total, Speer received five stents, but he does not remember any of it.

"I remember seeing a couple of my friends on Sunday evening, but I don't really start remembering anything until Monday," said Speer. "I learned what happened on Sunday evening when I started coming to, but I was sedated."

When he fully understood what had happened, the weight of it hit him.

"The first thing is that I just can't believe I'm still alive after having a heart attack," said Speer. "Normally, I see people who have heart attacks, and they don't make it. Dr. Arant said that I was a miracle. He said normally only 10% of the people survive what happened to me."

Dr. Arant saw it as something more.

"Someone asked me the question about how lucky he is to be alive," Dr. Arant said. "I word it a little differently. I think he's very blessed to be alive. This was certainly a God-directed path where everything was just right where it had to be for him to have an incredible outcome."

It was not just one moment. It was many.

"You had to have the bystander who saved his life by performing CPR," Dr. Arant said. "Then you had to have EMS. Then you had the emergency room team. Then the cath lab team. Then the ICU team. It truly does take a team."

Speer spent five days in the hospital, four of them in the intensive care unit (ICU).

He had always been active. He had completed three full Ironmans and six half Ironmans. He had just finished the 75 Hard challenge and lost 40 pounds.

"I was in probably the best shape I've been in in a couple of years," said Speer. "And then I had my heart attack."

In hindsight, there were signs.

"Every now and then, I would get a toothache," said Speer. "It would come up and it would hurt for maybe five or six minutes and go away. Sometimes, my lungs felt cold when I would start exercising. I thought I was just out of shape, but they say those are some of the signs."

Recovery has been steady but humbling. He soon completed four weeks of cardiac rehab, going twice a week, and since rehab, he has already run a 5K.

"I finished," said Speer. "It wasn't my best time. I might've finished last in my age group, but I finished it - and I felt really good about it."

Now, Speer has a new goal: to compete in Ironman Chattanooga in September.

For Dr. Arant, cases like Speer's are why he does what he does.

"It's incredibly gratifying to see people get back to their families and live the life the way they want to live it," said Dr. Arant. "It really is what makes me wake up every morning happy and ready to go to work again."

On that August 2025 morning, everything had to fall into place. A friend. A passerby. First responders. A heart team ready to act.

"God put everybody in place for everything," said Speer. "Just to get me to the hospital and get me to the best doctors around."

Today, he is lacing up his shoes again. Not because he has to prove anything, but because he can.

And that, he knows, is a miracle.

You can also watch Jason share his story below.