Scott and Tracy Vanacore (far right) thanked the first responders and his AdventHealth Sebring care team who helped save Scott's life following an on-track heart attack.
After thanking first responders for helping save his life, Scott Vanacore participated in a CPR refresher course, hosted by AdventHealth.
SEBRING, Fla. — Scott Vanacore vividly remembers the moment he nearly died from a heart attack that began while he was driving his race car at Sebring International Raceway.
As Highlands County Fire Rescue rushed him to AdventHealth Sebring, Vanacore said his condition deteriorated rapidly. Paramedics urged him to stay conscious and keep fighting.
“I remember getting light-headed and I remember starting to fade away and I remember them saying ‘Scott, stay with us, stay with us’ and ‘Scott you need to fight, you need to fight for your life,” Vanacore said. “I started thinking of my family, my kids, telling myself, telling God I can’t die, I don’t want to die.”
Two months later, Vanacore stood in the winner’s circle at Sebring with his wife, Tracy, thanking first responders from Highlands County Fire Rescue, Sebring Fire Department and Aloha Medical Services along with the AdventHealth team members who all worked together to save his life. The couple was reunited with his care team during a special AdventHealth event that also featured a hands‑only CPR refresher course, which Vanacore participated in.
“I feel like if I were anywhere else on this Earth, but this race track I’d be dead, because of the immediate care I got,” Vanacore said.
“Without all of you, I would not have my husband,” Tracy Vanacore added. “My daughter would not have her father to walk her down the aisle.”
Vanacore said the incident began while he was testing a new motor in his Porsche GT3 Cup car. After a practice run, he noticed something felt wrong.
“I remember getting out of the car and just feeling not great,” Vanacore said. “I remember a little pain my chest, I remember a little pain in my left arm.”
At first, Vanacore thought the symptoms were due to heat and exhaustion. But the owner of his race team called for medics, who performed an EKG.
“I remember them looking at each other, and I knew it wasn’t good,” Vanacore said.
He was loaded into an ambulance, where his condition worsened. At one point, Vanacore said, his heart stopped for several minutes as paramedics performed CPR and used a defibrillator to revive him.
“They were doing CPR on me, using the defibrillator and at some point, I remember coming back out and I remember those guys yelling at me, ‘Scott, fight, fight!’” Vanacore said.
Vanacore was rushed to AdventHealth Sebring’s cardiac catheterization lab. Before the procedure began, AdventHealth Sebring Emergency Department Assistant Medical Director, Dr. Jeremy Selley called Vanacore’s wife so she could hear his voice. She was driving from Ormond Beach after learning he had been taken to the hospital.
“I got a call from a doctor and he said we’re about to do a procedure on your husband, we have him in the hospital and he wanted to say something to you and I hear my husband in the background scream ‘I love you!’” Tracy said.
Doctors and the cath lab team worked to stabilize Vanacore. He later learned his heart stopped again during the procedure, but the team revived him, placed stents and stabilized him.
“The care I got, the professionalism was amazing and I say that with all my heart,” Vanacore said.
Hospital leaders credited the LifeNet Care system, which allows AdventHealth Sebring to receive real‑time patient data from Fire Rescue and EMS. The system helped the care team determine the best treatment plan before Vanacore arrived at the hospital.
“Since we’ve introduced this new technology, we’ve seen about a 50 percent reduction in the time it takes to get the patients to the hospital and get the heart attack artery open,” said Dr. Thomas Shimshak, AdventHealth Sebring’s chair of the interventional cardiology department. “We’re way beyond the national standard. The national standard time is 90 minutes. At our center, it was 45 minutes prior to the introduction of LifeNet. Now with LifeNet, it’s 28 minutes and so it illustrates how important it is, and those minutes make a huge difference.”
The Vanacores said they are embracing Scott’s new lease on life and plan to attend the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring race this weekend. Vanacore said his experience has prompted friends to get their hearts checked, with some even purchasing defibrillators.
He hopes to be cleared to race again someday. Until then, the couple said they remain grateful for the care that saved his life.
“There was a chance that day that he wasn’t going to come back, but God was on his side and with the best workers and the best care ever, he survived,” Tracy said. “We are very thankful; we are very blessed”
“Thank you for saving my life and for the professional care I got,” Scott said “Apparently, I’m a miracle, but they are the reason, I’m their miracle.”