A California man was just a day away from competing in the 2019 Bank of America Chicago Marathon when he suffered a stroke, and now, he’s hoping to finish what he started when the race gets underway Sunday. Lauren Petty shares his story.
A California man was just a day away from competing in the 2019 Bank of America Chicago Marathon when he suffered a stroke, and now, he's hoping to finish what he started when the race gets underway Sunday.
Jason DePetris had flown into Chicago from Long Beach, California just before the race in 2019. He went to pick up his marathon race packet and was having breakfast the morning before the race, when he dropped his fork and the side of his face started drooping.
“Then I started to slide out of the chair. My body went limp and I started to slide out of the chair like that,” Jason DePetris said, demonstrating how he was slipping from his seat.
Thankfully, Jason was eating with his husband and his mom at Lyfe Kitchen, right next to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in downtown Chicago. Dr. Babak Jahromi, a neurosurgeon, was in the emergency department that day.
“He had very classic signs of a stroke -- drooping face, can’t move the arm, can’t understand the speech -- very classic,” Dr. Jahromi said.
The neurosurgeon took DePetris, then 41, into an operating room and soon learned that DePetris’ blocked artery was caused by a tricky brain aneurysm. “We had to strike a very fine balance to still open the artery, but in the process not burst the aneurysm,” Dr. Jahromi said.
Thankfully, the life-saving surgery was a success, but DePetris was devastated to miss the marathon.
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“At times it was hard to impress upon Jason that you dodged a bullet, that you had a near death event. His take was, ‘I’m in Chicago. I’m about to run the marathon and now I can’t run the marathon,” Dr. Jahromi said.
DePetris returned to California and underwent several more surgeries there to treat the aneurysm. After months of physical therapy, he’s now running again and plans to return to Chicago to finish what he started.
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“I want to do something meaningful with the 2nd chance that I was given. Not everybody who goes through this is given a 2nd chance,” DePetris said.
When DePetris arrives here in Chicago on Friday afternoon, he wanted to go to Northwestern Memorial Hospital to thank the staff who saved his life, But Dr. Jahromi has a surprise for DePetris. “This Sunday I plan to be at the marathon. I want to see him cross the line and we’re going to give him high fives,” Dr. Jahromi said.
A charity runner fundraising for the Brain Injury Recovery Foundation, DePetris is eager to cross that finish line, even if it’s three years later than planned.
