KALAMAZOO, Mich. — A miracle on Field Three: How a Kalamazoo umpire survived after his heart stopped Randy Pack, chief umpire in the City Ball Softball League, survived a heart attack on a Kalamazoo softball field — a recovery that doctors and those around him describe as nothing short of a miracle.
It happened on Friday, Oct. 2, on Field Three. Pack's heart stopped during a game. He received 55 minutes of CPR and nine shocks before coming back — and now, he's able to walk the field and tell the story himself.
"The word that was used several times in the hospital was a miracle," Pack said.
Doctors had prepared his wife, Teri Pack, for the worst, warning she should not expect him to speak or remember.
"In their minds, no one who has 55 minutes of CPR, 9 blasts from a shock remembers it and comes back with no speech damage or memory loss. Knock on wood, I've maintained all of that. Somehow, I don't know," Pack said.
A series of lucky breaks lined up in Randy's favor. He and his wife don't believe it's luck. Their faith in God tells them otherwise.
"Everything just went so perfectly," Teri Pack said.
That day, Pack wasn't at his usual ball diamond in Portage. He was umpiring in Kalamazoo.
"Randy doesn't normally work on Friday nights. He was covering for another umpire," Teri said.
The person who stepped in to save him was also filling in.
"The young man who did the CPR on him was subbing on Friday nights. This was his first time subbing on Friday nights all year," Teri said.
CPR started almost immediately — and in cardiac emergencies, those seconds truly count.
Twenty days later, at the Fire Breathing Kittens' championship game, Pack kept getting stopped. He does have a celebrity quality about him — but that's not why so many were stopping him. People were stopping because his heart did.
Walking me back to the place where it all happened, Pack reflected on how far he's come.
"I'm back," Pack said. "In much better shape."
For Pack and his family, this isn't just luck. It's proof it wasn't his time to leave the softball diamond for good.
To the teams he serves, Pack is more than an umpire.
"Randy is the nicest human being I've ever met in my entire life. I think he's probably the nicest human being a lot of people have ever met in their entire lives," Cory Chapman of the City Ball Softball League said.
Pack knows how much he means to the league — and how much it means to him.
"I'm old enough now that people, their kids are now on the ball field. So remember us. The dinosaurs once ruled the earth," Pack said.
For Teri, his recovery confirms what she's always believed.
"He's just been remarkable. He really has. I've always felt that way about him. But this just kind of sets it in stone. Now everybody has to feel that way too," Teri said.
For her, the gratitude is impossible to put into words.
"Thankfully someone was able to give me my husband back. The love of my life. There's no feeling like that in the world. If you can do that for someone else, do it," Teri said.
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