On a D.C. sidewalk, a race to save a Marine general's life

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Fri May 10, 2024, 09:32 AM - Edit history (1)

On a D.C. sidewalk, a race to save a Marine general’s life

Gen. Eric M. Smith collapsed in cardiac arrest while out for a run. This is the remarkable, previously untold story of how he survived.

By Dan Lamothe
May 10, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

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Timothy LaLonde, left, and his sister Joyce LaLonde pose for a portrait after they were recognized by Gen. Eric M. Smith at a small ceremony at Marine Barracks Washington on Thursday. The pair and others came to the rescue of Smith, the commandant of the Marine Corps, last year after he collapsed with cardiac arrest during a run. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

Gen. Eric M. Smith stepped out on a warm, late-afternoon run last fall, pounding the pavement of Southeast Washington on a routine three-mile loop. As the top U.S. Marine, he had spent the morning cheering on participants in the annual Marine Corps Marathon, and wanted to squeeze in his own workout before taking his wife out to dinner. ... It was Oct. 29. A few blocks away, Timothy and Joyce LaLonde concluded a celebratory post-race lunch and began the walk back to Joyce’s nearby home. The siblings, accompanied by several family members, were shaken by what they encountered: A man facedown on the sidewalk — alone, unresponsive and bleeding from his mouth. ... “Tim, come!” Joyce LaLonde recalled yelling to her brother. “Hurry!”

The ensuing scramble saved the life of the Marine Corps commandant, a father of two who had stepped into his new role on the Joint Chiefs of Staff just three months earlier. Smith, who turns 59 in June, suffered cardiac arrest at the tail end of his run, just a block from his home at Marine Barracks Washington — a crisis in which the speed and quality of medical intervention proved vital.

For the first time, those directly connected to Smith’s rescue have publicly detailed how he survived, a fortuitous succession of events resulting in an improbable return to the Pentagon after barely four months of recovery. This account is based on hours of interviews with the general and eight others, including Smith’s surgeon and the paramedics who administered several electrical shocks to stabilize his heart. ... What began with Joyce LaLonde spotting the general sprawled on the concrete and her brother, a certified CPR instructor, rendering aid ended, all agreed, with the best possible outcome.

“If you were to have this scenario play out 1,000 times, maybe five people … would survive it like he did,” said Smith’s cardiac surgeon, Thomas MacGillivray. “It’s an unusual thing that somebody gets CPR for that long and not just survives it, but is back to normal life within a couple of few months.” Impossible, he added, without everyone having provided the care they did.

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Marine Corps Gen. Eric M. Smith poses for a portrait at his residence at Marine Barracks Washington on Thursday, after a ceremony in which he recognized the three people who came to his rescue. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

{snip}



Joyce LaLonde, left, and her brother Timothy, far right, in Washington with other family members after they completed the 48th Marine Corps Marathon in Arlington, Va., on Oct. 29, 2023. Shortly after this photo was taken, Timothy and Joyce found Gen. Eric M. Smith lying unresponsive on the ground. (LaLonde family)

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Joyce LaLonde embraces Patrisha Smith, in red, the wife of Gen. Eric M. Smith, left, as Gen. Smith recognizes Joyce and others during the ceremony Thursday. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

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Gen. Eric M. Smith, left, applauds Timothy LaLonde. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

{snip}

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By Dan Lamothe
Dan Lamothe joined The Washington Post in 2014 to cover the U.S. military. He has written about the Armed Forces for more than 15 years, traveling extensively, embedding with five branches of service and covering combat in Afghanistan. Twitter https://twitter.com/danlamothe

[BoRaGard]

1. Great story. Thanks for posting.

Lots of folks in GD would appreciate this story, too.

[mopinko]

2. saw a stat the other day on the effectiveness of cpr.

it said it was appallingly low. i dont know what it actually is, but of course, not as effective as the teevee shows wd have u think.
but when it works, it’s a miracle.

at my nephew’s wedding, many yrs ago, the bride’s uncle collapsed on the dance floor. 1 of the other guests was a cardiologist. he jumped right in, took too long for the emt’s to get there. guy had over 20 min of cpr. fully recovered like this guy.

[oldsoftie]

3. I still dont understand how these hear attacks work. THIS guy has been in shape his whole LIFE

How the heck do you have this happen? In the military, he would get a physical every year. They didnt see ANYTHING unusual in his last one? He didnt have any symptoms? I started wondering about this stuff when Clinton had his emergency surgery.
I consider myself fairly healthy & I run a little bit too but I always worry about shit like this

[niyad]

4. Back in the early 80's, a 52 year old woman I knew went to her dr.

for her annual checkup. Didn't smoke, drank a little, thin. Dr. pronounced her in excellent health. She flew home several days later to put her mother in a nursing home. Woke up with chest pains, dead of a massive coronary minutes later. What did her dr. miss? We know from studies that heart attacks kill more women than breast cancer does, we know the symptoms are different, and we know doctors tend to overlook or discredit women's symptoms. Did her dr. miss something? Ignore something? I have no answers.

[lonely bird]

9. Our PCP

Told my wife that high triglycerides are a marker for women regarding potential heart issues. We all hear about cholesterol but not triglycerides.

[oldsoftie]

13. Exactly. That kind of stuff terrifies me.

My dr said that the only REAL way to check your heart out is a heart Cath & insurance companies wont pay for preventative checks.
I dont know if these new scans you can get are as good but I've been thinking about getting one

[Moosepoop]

10. He had a congenital heart condition

He knew about if for years, but it hadn't been a problem... until now.

The seriousness of the situation soon became clear. While the general had survived cardiac arrest, he still had an aortic bicuspid valve that had failed. The condition, said MacGillivray, is congenital and meant that Smith’s aortic valve had only two parts, or “leaflets,” pumping blood away from the heart, rather than the customary three.

Valve replacement surgery is common, but often it occurs after a patient experiences chest pain, fatigue and other less severe symptoms that prompt treatment. Smith told MacGillivray that he had been aware of his condition, the doctor said, but he had lived with it for years without issue and typically ran three miles in about 18 minutes.

He had to have open heart surgery to replace the defective aortic valve with a mechanical one. He can always hear it ticking.

[oldsoftie]

12. Holy crap. Thanks for that info. Something ELSE to wonder about.

[flying_wahini]

5. EVERYONE should be trained in CPR. Everyone.

You never know when you will need it.

[niyad]

14. I made certain that I got trained very early on, since it seemed to me

that I tended to be first on the scene in more than my share of emergencies. I should get recertified, actually.

If I remember correctly, many years ago, Seattle had a prigram to train as many people as possible on CPR.

[Lilaclady]

6. CPR

On August 28, 2023 my 76 yr old husband went to see a cardiologist for the first time. His GP put him on meds for high blood pressure two weeks earlier. After his appointment the dr was escorting him to the lobby when my husband dropped to the floor in sudden cardiac arrest. His dr administered CPR immediately and EMTs were called. He was revived and had no idea what happened - just that several EMTs were working on him, putting him on the gurney and placing him in the ambulance. The hospital was a half mile away. He has had a series of tests since then but the cause has not been determined. He now wears a Lifevest, a wearable defibrillator.

[mn9driver]

7. Sometimes there's a warning, sometimes not.

One of my good friends was at work a few years back; a retired cop and former marine. His retirement job was manning the front door security desk at a large corporation. One day, he just closed his eyes and died there, in his chair at the desk. No warning of any kind; at first people thought he was just napping.

A few weeks ago, another friend was playing volleyball with our regular old guy church gym volleyball group when he began to feel unwell. We stopped playing to check him out, and his wife drove over to take him to the ER since his symptoms weren’t too alarming. It turned out he was in fact having a heart attack; the docs put a total of 3 stents in. He is very health conscious and sees his doctor regularly, but had a time bomb ticking. He will be back playing volleyball in a few more weeks.

I’m thankful I’m still here. Maybe for a good while yet, or maybe not. 🤞🏼

[COL Mustard]

8. General Smith is an extremely fortunate man

I’m so glad he has made a full recovery.

[ShazzieB]

11. Very cool story, and the photos add so much!

I especially love the "Aww, shucks" look on Timothy LaLonde's face in the last one. Also love the one of JoyceLaLonde hugging (and being hugged by) Patricia Smith. Really a beautiful moment. I can only imagine how hard I'd be hugging someone who had helped save my husband's life!

This story is Exhibit A of the evidence that there really are good people in this world, even in the weird times we're living in right now. After reading this and looking at the pics, I feel like hugging someone myself.