Runner shares message for strangers who helped after she collapsed along Boston Marathon

By Jessica Brown

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    HOPKINTON, Massachusetts (WCVB) — Meghan Roth had run the Boston Marathon before, knew the course well and said she was feeling great at the start of last week’s race.

“Going into the race, felt in the best shape of my life,” Roth said.

Roth crossed that starting line last Monday and started cruising, but as she approached mile 8, something went wrong.

“It was literally seconds when, all of a sudden, I kind of went fuzzy, and I remember looking down at my feet, then all of a sudden I just went down,” Roth said. “I don’t even remember hitting the ground.”

Roth had gone into cardiac arrest in the middle of the marathon course.

Several people sprang into action, performing CPR on her until an ambulance could arrive.

One of the good Samaritans was fellow runner Nick Haney, who first met Roth in 2019 and had just seen her the night before the race.

“When I saw her, there was already a woman who had initiated compressions and a young man that was holding her airway open,” Haney said. “I directed him to continue keeping her airway open. I felt for a pulse.”

Roth was rushed to the hospital, then taken to Tufts Medical Center for treatment.

Now back home in Minnesota with her 10-month-old baby boy, Roth and her mom can’t say enough about the help they got in Boston.

“I’m just so thankful,” Roth said. “All I could think of was my grandson and not having his mother and just so many thanks.”

“I’m so blessed to be home with my son and to be doing so well. I’m just so lucky they were there,” Roth said. “They saved my life. I don’t think I can ever thank them enough.”

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