Heart-stopping mysteries run into Casa Grande coach

"What do you say to someone who saved your husband's life?" asked Vicky Triola.

And if that's not difficult enough, Vicky doesn't even know who saved Carl's life. He is Mystery Man, that's all she knows.

Mystery Man was there with Carl on the trail Sunday morning and he was there briefly in the emergency room at Memorial Hospital.

Then he disappeared.

Didn't want people to know his name. Said he was traumatized, in shock, had to go. Vicky understood. She has the same unrest stirring inside her. It's just, well, she needs to tell him something, even if she's still searching for the right words.

"There's nothing you can say," said the wife of Casa Grande High's cross country coach, "but I want to try. I want him to know how grateful I am for what he did. We don't even have to meet in person. The phone would be fine. Doesn't even have to be a long conversation. Won't tell anyone his name. I just want to talk to him. I want to thank him for what he did for me, for us."

Mystery Man was in street clothes as he approached the gate at the Stonehedge entrance to Annadel State Park at 9:53 a.m. Sunday. Someone had called 911. On the ground was Triola, blood pouring from his nose, mucus around his mouth.

Pounding on Triola's chest was a woman who only wants to be known at this time as Sharon. Sharon is a retired cardiac nurse. She told Mystery Man to begin CPR, instructing him exactly what to do. Sharon would tell Vicky later that Carl "had flat-lined." He had no pulse.

Carl Triola, 38, was just a block-and-half from his house. He had almost finished a two-mile run, a "short run" Vicky said, by his standards. Sharon the retired cardiac nurse and her husband were beginning their usual Sunday ritual of walking their dog. Sharon told Vicky she saw Carl approach the entrance/exit at Stonehedge, stumble, fall, will himself back on his feet, only to fall once again, this time against the gate.

For four minutes, that's all it took for the paramedics to arrive after the 911 was placed, Sharon pounded and Mystery Man forced in air. Their actions continued providing oxygen for the blood. It was life-saving but the Good Samaritans were running out of time. Even with CPR being administered, said Mike Lennon, field supervisor for Sonoma Life Support, a non-beating heart typically only has "four to six minutes" under such care before the opportunity and the patient is lost.

With one jolt from the paramedics' defibrillator, Triola's heartbeat was restored. The paramedics told Vicky, four months' pregnant with their second child, that if Carl had collapsed away from a populated area, up in Annadel's hills . . . that if Sharon and the Mystery Man hadn't been there right then, at the right time, knowing what to do . . .

"He would have died," Vicky said. "Those two people saved his life. They were his guardian angels. Someone was watching over him."

For 36 hours, Carl was kept on a breathing tube in the ICU at Memorial. Initially his body was packed around ice, lowering his core temperature to 92 degrees, a relatively new procedure for cardiac patients. Tests revealed an undamaged heart. Tests revealed he had not suffered a heart attack.

"His heart just stopped," Vicky said.

Doctors don't know why. On Tuesday, Triola was sent by ambulance to Santa Teresa Medical Center in San Jose, a facility that specializes in cardiac care. His condition was listed as stable. Doctors are looking for answers in a man that was the picture of health. Carl Triola has run two marathons. He runs regularly. He doesn't smoke.

"Two beers for him is a lot," Vicky said. "He doesn't even like to take Ibuprofen."

Warning signs? There were none.

After-effects? The list may be longer than a freeway traffic jam.

"Carl doesn't remember any of what happened," Vicky said. "He doesn't even remember he went the night (Saturday) before to see 'The Golden Compass' with Luke (their 7-year-old son). I think he's upset he's missed two days out of his life."

Vicky has been able to talk to her husband, but it's clear to her Carl is still in a fog, partly from the medication, partly from the episode.

"He'll ask me what happened," Vicky said, "and I'll tell him. Later on he'll ask me what happened and I'll tell him again."

The situation might be more maddening than she can bear -- The Triolas announced to friends just a week ago she was pregnant -- if it weren't for the rush of affection and support she has received from parents (both sides flew across the country), friends and people who know Carl Triola simply by reputation alone.

"I hope you get better," wrote Austin on a Casa Grande Web site updating Triola's condition. "I run for you."

"He's not only a great coach," said Casa senior cross country runner Sarah McSweeney, "he's a great person. He's by far the most positive and supportive person I have met in my life."

On that Web site, Triola has received messages of support from rival coaches and runners, runners he once coached, parents of runners and teachers and students at Miwok Elementary School in Petaluma, where Triola is a fifth-grade teacher.

The track community, by its singular nature, is close. Couple that with Triola -- good luck on finding a negative word said about the man -- and Vicky Triola said she felt "overwhelmed" with the support she received.

That helps to counteract when she feels overwhelmed for another reason.

"Every once in a while I'll break down," said Vicky, 40.

She tries not to drive herself crazy with the Why of things because the Why of things makes absolutely no sense. A good father, a good husband, a good coach and to hear everyone else say, an even better person, in perfect health, an exercise maven, almost dies? Huh? The dots don't connect on this one. Instead, she rather concentrate on Carl emerging from death, occasionally emerging from the fog.

"A nurse was shaving him in ICU," Vicky said, "and Carl said, 'I wish I could give you a tip but I don't have any change on me right now.' "

Yes, she admitted, she fell in love with Carl because of his sense of humor. OK, sure, she never liked to run.

"I hate it," she said with a laugh.

Ah, love the man, love the runner and, after 10 years of marriage, she found out something about herself in these past few days she didn't think possible.

"I'm a lot stronger than I think I am," she said. "Carl was always the strong one."

They have one child and after seven years, thinking the baby window had closed for them, but, voliá, another one is on the way. Carl was just named head track coach at Casa, after working with cross country for 10 years. Life for them was climbing upward. She's not sure but she would like to think their time together still is.

Carl being alive, that's a good place to start. The next best place, and running a close second by the way, is Sharon and the Mystery Man. Great luck at a very bad time to a good man.

"Next to having a heart attack in the parking lot at Memorial," Vicky said, "it was the best case scenario."

So Vicky Triola wants to see a brighter day; she said it's always been her nature to look at life like that, anyway.

So she wants Mystery Man to emerge from the shadows. He should take his time, she said. No rush. She understands what trauma feels like, oh yes she does. But when he's ready, she said she's there, waiting for his phone call. It would mean so much to her. It's life itself, is what he gave.

She can't return the favor, unless maybe, in July, when the baby comes. If it's a girl, she can be named Sharon, and if it's a boy, we need a first name. See, Mystery Man Triola, that just won't do.

You can reach staff columnist Bob Padecky at 521-5490 or at bob.padecky@pressdemocrat.com.