Overview
- Simpson collapsed during a community mile event in June, received immediate bystander CPR and AED shocks, and was later taken to a hospital where she suffered a second cardiac arrest.
- Doctors placed her on life support and transferred her to Duke University Hospital for advanced heart-failure care before she recovered enough to be discharged and continue rehab at home in Colorado.
- Medical testing found arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, a rare inherited disease in which scar tissue disrupts the heart’s electrical signals and can trigger dangerous arrhythmias.
- Simpson said the diagnosis makes high‑intensity running dangerous and announced she will not return to competitive racing while she works with Duke clinicians on a recovery plan.
- Her statement praises the rescuers and medical teams that saved her life, highlights the value of CPR and AEDs at events, and underlines how inherited heart disease can end elite athletes’ careers.