Sentara cardiologist saves driver who had heart attack and crashed

On the morning of August 8, 2025, Dr. Deepak Talreja, clinical chief of cardiology for Sentara Health, arrived early to his office at Sentara Cardiology Specialists in Virginia Beach, Virginia. His keys for access to the building were nowhere to be found, so he sat on an outside bench to wait for one of his colleagues to open the door. As he waited, Dr. Talreja heard what “sounded like a gunshot”.

The alarming noise turned out to be a car crash. An SUV had slammed into a commercial business sign off First Colonial Road.

Dr. Talreja called 911 and immediately ran over to find the vehicle was mangled, the windshield shattered, and the airbags deployed. With assistance from a good Samaritan, he was able to pull the driver out and onto the pavement. Sixty-four-year-old Jeff Geraci had no pulse and was not breathing. He had suffered sudden cardiac death while driving.

Dr. Talreja performed at least eight minutes of CPR, reviving Jeff’s heart. Meanwhile, a police officer passing by saw the commotion and stopped. He had a defibrillator in his squad car and he and Dr. Talreja put that to use as well. Not long after, an ambulance arrived to take Jeff to Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital.

It was the quick response that made the difference: "If he'd gone eight minutes or so without CPR and without blood flow, then we can probably resuscitate the heart for another 10 minutes or so, but the brain doesn't recover,” said Dr. Talreja. “So, Jeff wouldn't be with us today."

When he arrived at the emergency department, Jeff was designated an alpha trauma, alerting the team to his critical condition. Immediately, he was ushered into the heart catheterization lab where Invasive Interventional Cardiologist Dr. Ramin Alimard found a ninety percent blockage of one of the main arteries that supplies blood to the heart: the left anterior descending (LAD) artery, also known as the widowmaker artery.

Moments later, Jeff was awake, in recovery, and asking “what happened”.

According to eyewitnesses, Jeff careened across two lanes of traffic, narrowly missing a commuter bus, before crashing into a sign. Police also reported that had Jeff’s vehicle not been stopped, his trajectory would have taken him directly into a building of people beginning their workday.

"I got an opportunity to come back, so there's got to be a reason,” said Jeff. “Every morning, I pray and think about, if I'm here, I need to be doing more than I was doing. I try to be a better person every day, try to be an example for my family and warn them and friends. It's wonderful. I mean, it's a miracle."

A second chance

Now he shares his story to prevent the same thing from happening to others. Jeff maintains a relatively healthy diet, never smokes, and exercises regularly. However, he does have a family history of heart disease but thought it wasn’t going to happen to him. Since he saved Jeff, Dr. Talreja has also become his cardiologist.

“Being aware of one’s family history as it relates to heart disease is imperative, as is knowing your numbers, blood pressure, and cholesterol," Dr. Talreja advised. "A healthy lifestyle serves as a preventative measure as well."

He recommends a Mediterranean diet, along with moderate exercise, not smoking, and limited alcohol consumption.

Dr. Talreja went on to say, “For patients like Jeff, who have undergone heart catheterization, the stent treated the blockage, but preventing future heart problems also includes staying on your medications and remaining engaged in follow-up care and cardiac rehabilitation."

Jeff is still processing all that has happened, but he is grateful.

"I thank Dr. Talreja for his expeditious actions, Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital, and the ICU for mending me," he said. "And I thank God for aligning all the circumstances that gave me a second chance. I'm blessed. It's a miracle. God was there and thank God Dr. Talreja was there."