JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. ― A trip to the races could have been deadly for East Tennessee State University pharmacy professor Charles Collins if circumstances had been slightly different.
Collins, exiting Bristol Motor Speedway in March with a group of family and friends after a series of rain delays during the Food City 500, collapsed onto the pavement, suffering from a massive heart attack.
He doesn’t remember the events of that day or the previous Saturday, but his son later recounted to him the story of the young woman and man who performed CPR on him and saved his life.
When his heart stopped, Collins’ son told him he said something that sounded like “Help me” before he fell to the ground.
“I had a backpack on, so I didn’t hit my head when I fell,” Collins said this month, sitting at the back entrance to the Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy. “I suppose at that point, I was having an atrial flutter.”
Lying on the damp pavement, a crowd formed around him as he stopped breathing and lost consciousness. No one nearby seemed to know what to do.
Exiting the gate a few yards away was Kristin Lester. She saw the agitated commotion ahead and the man lying on the ground.
