Runner Grateful After Being Carried Across Boston Marathon Finish Line

BOSTON (CBS) - An emotional moment captured in a snapshot at the marathon finish line. Two runners helping another complete the 26.2 mile race. The heat took its toll on the man, and he's still in the hospital. Dr. Mallika Marshall spoke to the patient on Wednesday.

You might expect that older people or those with underlying medical conditions would get the sickest during a marathon, especially in higher than normal temperatures, but this year one of the sickest patients was young, healthy and an experienced runner.

It's not exactly the way Ari Ofsevit hoped to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon, but cross it he did, barely conscious and supported by two strangers.

The 31-year old Newton native admits he was pushing himself hard, trying to beat last year's time, but as he approached the end, everything changed.

"I vaguely remember being on Boylston Street and looking down at the finish but I don't remember anything past that," says Ari.

After being carried across the finish line, he was whisked into the medical tent where his temperature was measured 108.8 degrees Fahrenheit.

Ari was plunged into an ice bath then transferred by ambulance to Tufts Medical Center where the medical staff admits, it was touch and go.

"His condition was severe and serious," says Matthew Mostofi, DO who first treated Ari in the emergency room at Tufts.

"This is the worst case I've seen," admits Patricia Burchell, an emergency room nurse at Tufts.

Thanks to the quick actions of his fellow runners, the volunteers in the medical tent, Boston EMS, and the staff at Tufts, Ari is expected to recover and may go home tomorrow.

"It does humble you about how fast things can change and how life is precious," says Mostofi.

Ari says thinking back to the devastation of 2013 this is a year we can celebrate.

"To have a joyful marathon where the picture is of people of helping each other and is not people with devastating injuries," says Ari, is a blessing.

Ari is grateful to the men and women who saved his life and hopes to run in next year's marathon.