30 year-old bike racer Colby Brooks collapsed while participating in the singlespeed race at the Portland Mountain Bike Short Track Series held tonight at Portland International Raceway (PIR).
Race organizer Kris Schamp was riding alongside Brooks just moments before the incident. He told me via telephone this evening that according to several witnesses, Brooks was riding along and suddenly collapsed near the start/finish area of the race course.
On hand medical staff began CPR immediately and continued “for over ten minutes,” but Brooks remained unconscious until the ambulance arrived. The ambulance crew immediately employed their automated external defibrillator (AED) device and Schamp says Brooks “finally came to after the first jolt.”
AEDs are not required equipment for Oregon Bicycle Racing Association (OBRA) events.
According to Schamp, Brooks was breathing and “O.K.” as he was carried away on a stretcher.
He was taken to Legacy Emanuel hospital and friends say he is currently awake, stable, and a bit confused about what happened (due to being unconscious for so long). There’s still no word on what exactly caused the collapse.
Brooks is an employee at the Hollywood Bike Gallery store.
I wrote about this race earlier today and a few people are already commenting about the incident. One racer named Dan wrote,
“I was there tonight and really thought the race should have been paused until they could get the… victim off the track. I will never forget the sight of people performing CPR on that man while people raced by on their MTBs six feet away.”
UPDATE: 6/24, 7:39am — Friends of Colby Brooks report that he is still in the ICU and that he’s “doing great!” They also add that nurses are commending the first-responders for their “fantastic job” keeping Colby alive by doing CPR before the ambulance arrived.