![\"Cardiac](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/hhaa4noae91ce07j.jpg\")
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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Michael Warner had done the St. Anthony\u2019s Triathlon nearly 10 times before, but this year\u2019s race in April was different.<\/p>\n
He ended up in the very hospital that the race raises money for, in cardiac arrest and given a 5-10% survival rate. He beat those odds, though, and Friday, he had an emotional reunion with the first responders and medical team who saved his life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Warner, his wife and their young daughter met the team at St. Petersburg<\/a> Fire Rescue\u2019s Headquarters.\u00a0<\/p>\n The backstory:<\/p>\n The last thing Warner said he remembers from that April day was thinking about how beautiful Tampa Bay is as he started the swim portion of the triathlon. The first responders and medical staff filled in the blanks Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n St. Pete Police and Fire Rescue were already stationed out on the water during the race when they saw Warner show signs of exhaustion, and then sink.<\/p>\n It was just 16 minutes from the second first responders rescued Warner from the water, to when they rushed him through the doors of St. Anthony\u2019s Hospital. Both the first responders and the medical staff had to shock him several times to get his pulse back.\u00a0<\/p>\n He stayed at St. Anthony\u2019s for a day before he was flown to St. Joe\u2019s ICU in Tampa<\/a> because his condition worsened. Warner also suffered from pneumonia, sepsis and a staph infection because of the water, sand and shells that got into his lungs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Emotional St. Pete reunion <\/p>\n What they’re saying:<\/p>\n “There were thousands and thousands and thousands of things that have gone right, and I am humbled and again made small by all of these incredible acts,” Warner told the first responders and medical staff. “You know, it is beyond imagination that there is a group of people so talented and such fine examples of humanity that would want to put their efforts into me and saving my life as this group. But you did, and I cannot believe or thank you enough that it happened exactly like it happened.”<\/p>\n The first responders received awards Friday for their efforts helping Warner. Warner also gave them and the medical staff a pin he designed. It\u2019s a heart with waves, a flatline, and the words, “no one survives alone.”<\/p>\n Warner was in the hospital for one week and one day. The medical staff credits his miraculous recovery thanks in part to his triathlon training and his age.<\/p>\n The Source: Information in this story is from Michael Warner, St. Pete first responders and the medical staff who cared for Warner.\u00a0<\/p>\n Health<\/a>St. Petersburg<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Michael Warner had done the St. Anthony\u2019s Triathlon nearly 10 times before, but this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[47,571,115,1157,202,204,203,199,201,200,628],"class_list":["post-384095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-fl","tag-health","tag-news","tag-pinellas","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/vlcsnap-2026-08-28-19h30m45s078.png\")
St. Petersburg rescue operation <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/vlcsnap-2026-08-28-19h31m10s078.png\")
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