Chicago Firefighter Suffers Paralysis at Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon

Jun. 6—One of the nearly 2,000 athletes who participated in the annual Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon last weekend suffered a major injury at the very start of the San Francisco race.

Chicago firefighter Jose Perez has done many triathlons and Ironman competitions, his brother Samuel Perez told SFGATE on Friday, and had been training for the past year for the Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon. The Bay Area event begins with participants being loaded up onto boats that take them out into the middle of the bay. Then, they leap off the edge of a boat into the water to start the swimming leg of the race, which is followed by an 18-mile bike ride and an 8-mile run. According to Samuel, right after Jose jumped into the water, another participant jumped in and landed directly on Jose's head.

"My brother was instantly paralyzed," Samuel Perez told SFGATE. "He knew instantly he couldn't move his arms and legs. Him being a paramedic and fireman, he knew the severity of the situation."

A rescue team quickly got Jose onto a Jet Ski and heading toward the shore. Samuel had flown in from Las Vegas for the weekend and was preparing to go watch his brother on the two land-based parts of the three-legged event, but he got a call about the injury and raced to meet his brother at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center instead. Jose underwent emergency surgery to alleviate damage to the fifth cervical vertebra in his spine.

Jose has been in the intensive care unit at the hospital for the week since — Samuel was at the facility when he spoke with SFGATE on Friday — and he has regained limited mobility in his limbs but still cannot feel his wrists, hands or fingers. The next goal is to get out of the ICU and into a rehabilitation center, but it could be a long process.

"What they're telling us is that, depending on the rehab, he's going to be dealing with this for about a year or so," Samuel said.

Samuel said he spoke with race organizers about his brother's injury as Jose was in emergency surgery. According to Samuel, the organizers "made it seem like they had done everything right." Aside from a brief follow-up from the on-site race doctor on Tuesday, the Escape From Alcatraz team hasn't been in contact with the family since race day, Samuel said.

"The conversation, as we left it, was, 'We'll be in touch, we'll follow up, we'll check in on you guys,'" he told SFGATE. "That hasn't been the case. Jose's been asking the same thing: 'Have we heard from them?' Nothing. They sent us some insurance info, and that was pretty much it."

A little over two hours after this story published, the Escape From Alcatraz team responded to SFGATE's request for an interview or comment by sending a statement that was not attributed to any specific person, but rather a "spokesperson from the Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon."

"During this year's Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon, we experienced a medical emergency involving one of our participants. Our on-site medical team responded immediately and the individual received prompt care," the statement read. "The safety of our participants and spectators is of utmost importance to us and we have robust safety protocols in place based on the unique challenges of this course. We are grateful for our team of on-site safety and medical personnel for being there to assist quickly. Out of respect for the participant's privacy, we cannot provide any additional details about their condition or the incident."

Jose Perez's injury was apparently just one of several collisions or near-misses in Sunday's race, according to another competitor who spoke with SFGATE.

"I've been doing this a few times now, and it's never been chaotic like this," Kevin Edwards of Los Altos Hills told SFGATE in a phone interview.

For most races that involve water jumps, race officials will monitor competitors to make sure no racer is jumping onto another. Sunday's event, according to Edwards, was sorely lacking that oversight.

"I hate saying this because I like the event, but they were doing the opposite of moderation," Edwards told SFGATE. "... The people at the portal were trying to get you to just go. There was nobody who was providing any sort of moderation, monitoring, filtering or restrictions of anything."

As a man in his late-50s, Edwards was sitting on the upper deck of the boat as he awaited his turn with the other older racers. He said he saw the incident where Jose Perez got hurt and needed to be rescued. When he finally went down to the lower deck to prepare for his jump into the water, he said one person was shouting, "In the rear portal, there's no waiting, go, go, go."

When he arrived at the edge of the boat, he looked down and didn't see a clear place to jump, he said, but a race official "almost pushed me" to go into the water.

"The hand was out, and they were like, 'Go, don't stop. Go, go,'" Edwards said. "I had to put my hand up to say, 'No, there are people in the water.' I waited and then jumped and took off."

The race posted an 89-second video of participants jumping into the water. Though the clip has no sound, there appear to be very few, if any, visible attempts to make sure participants are entering the water safely. When the person filming moves to show the rear side of the boat, there isn't a single race official visible — and at least one swimmer can be seen jumping into the water over another person who's coming to the surface.

A user named Tammy DeRitis wrote in the Facebook post's comments: "The lack of metering people jumping is the most dangerous thing I've ever seen at a triathlon."

Replies to a Reddit post about the event had similar criticisms.

"I'd been lead to believe there was some order to the jump, but there was not," wrote user retaildetritus. "While I looked and I suppose who ever was after me looked, they were really just shoving everyone off."

User 21045runner added, "The jump off the boat was absurd. There was almost no one metering anything. When you do Escape the Cape, race staff tells you to jump to ensure you don't land on someone. Yesterday they were just screaming at you to go, when it was obvious you couldn't because someone was below you. Pure stupidity."

Edwards said he understands a race wants to get everyone off the boat and into the water as quickly as possible, but that can't come at the cost of doing so safely. He said that's what it felt like Sunday — which was especially concerning, because Edwards said he entered the water after witnessing the accident with Perez.

"If my experience of jumping had preceded the accident, it would be a different story," Edwards told SFGATE. "But my experience of jumping after the accident means that the accident happened and no upper manager or director was notified, or if they were notified, they didn't assess the situation and implement a safety change based on the condition. That's what really pisses me off."

"It was absolutely unsafe," Edwards added.

One of Jose Perez's friends back in Chicago has launched a GoFundMe to help cover the extensive medical costs that the family now faces. As of 3 p.m. Friday, it had raised over $50,000. But that doesn't erase Samuel Perez's frustrations.

"Seeing from all the people who were at the race, from the participants themselves, talking about the poor organization, that kind of just sparked a little bit of anger," he said.

This story has been updated.

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