I contend his age and being in exceptional physical shape made all the difference.
I doubt an ordinary person would’ve even survived.
Your statement about ordinary people not surviving is untrue. This should be a rallying call for anyone who gives a damn about others to learn how to administer effective CPR. The best prognosis for meaningful survival is time to ROSC usually by defibrillation and adequacy of CPR until ROSC.
The evidence is the thousands of people who survive meaningfully witnesses arrests in hospitals while they are on telemetry and have immediate CPR by well trained people and immediate access to defibrillators.