39th Milo Marathon Manila Mishaps

The photographer of Active Pinas – Be Active No Excuses witnessed two of those who collapsed during the 39th Milo Marathon Manila Elimination last Sunday in Mall of Asia.

Upon securing his place to take picture of the 21K and 42K runners, our photographer saw the 21K participant who suddenly collapsed just a few feet from him.

Some marshals and other photographers also saw him but it seemed that they were shocked and did not know what to do.

The Active Pinas photographer approached the collapsed runner immediately and was even able to take one or two snapshots just to document what happened.

Our photographer noticed that the runner was not moving anymore and when he tried to sit him up, he could not even lift the body. He noticed that the runner’s head was resting on the steel fence. There was an impression that the runner’s head hit the steel fence which probably made the accident more serious. Our photographer shouted for help to get the attention of any First Aid personnel within the area. One runner stopped and they helped each other to lay down the collapsed body of the runner on the pavement. After a few minutes, the first Medic arrived and he performed CPR on the runner while our photographer was trying his best to talk to the injured runner. He tightly held the cold hands of the victim to provide assurance and comfort that everything will be alright but at the same time, our photographer was already praying for the injured runner to respond.

Everytime CPR was being performed, the injured runner would gasp for air, but was not gaining consciousness. Two more runners stopped and helped. One of them appeared to have a medical background. The other one checked the pulse of the victim.

Immediately, an ambulance arrived and other Medic personnel helped in resuscitating the victim but to no avail. They all agreed to bring the victim to the hospital. Our photographer surrendered the shoes and the mobile phone of the victim to the other Medic personnel.

Update: We changed the picture of our post upon hearing the news that Mr. Mavic Millton Reyes passed away. As a show of respect, we are removing the picture of him which was taken by our photographer when he collapsed in the middle of the road near the finish line in MOA.