Posted on 02/17/2023 3:14:00 PM PST by nickcarraway
A 30-year-old was having lunch when she collapsed. She'd had a cardiac arrest.
-Katrysha Gellis was 30 when she experienced a sudden cardiac arrest. Photo courtesy Living Proof CPR Training -Katrysha Gellis had two cardiac arrests in her 30s. -One in 10 survive sudden cardiac arrest. This rate doubles or triples when victim is given CPR. -Cardiac arrest can be traumatic, and require therapy to help process the emotions.
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A 30-year-old woman was left fighting for her life after her heart suddenly stopped beating.
In October 2015, Katrysha Gellis was at work when she started to feel unwell. Almost immediately she collapsed and her heart stopped working. She'd had a sudden cardiac arrest.
Gellis told BBC "Heath Check": "My colleagues were very quick to call 911 and then start chest compressions.
"They started pressing on my chest and that pushed the blood around my body and kept oxygen going to my brain so it was essentially keeping me alive."
Shortly afterwards, a team of firefighters picked up the 911 call and arrived on site. They used an automated external defibrillator to restart her heart.
Gellis had just turned 30 and was a healthy person with no known heart conditions in the family. She later found out that an arrhythmia — an abnormal heart rhythm — had caused her heart to stop beating, but doctors couldn't find an official cause.
According to Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation, one in 10 survive sudden cardiac arrest and it can affect people of any age who may seem perfectly healthy.
When bystanders give immediate CPR, survival rates of SCA victims can double or triple, the foundation states.
Following her cardiac arrest, Gellis was fitted with a device called an implantable cardioverter defibrillator that would shock her heart back into the correct rhythm if needed.
Doctors told her that although it would be unlikely for her to experience another cardiac arrest, the ICD was there to protect her should it happen again, she told Insider.
Gellis had another cardiac arrest years later Over six years later, in January 2022, Gellis was at home when she had another arrhythmia and collapsed. The ICD shocked her heart into restarting while her husband called 911. She'd had another cardiac arrest.
Unlike with her first cardiac arrest, Gellis had vivid memories of the whole event, leaving her feeling traumatized.
She told Insider: "I think like any trauma, it just takes some time to heal and to process." With the help of a therapist, she started to process the emotions and a year on she feels like she's in a strong place.
Gellis said that experiencing cardiac arrest — whether it be yourself or witnessing as a bystander — can be a traumatic experience and there's a gap in care for survivors as well as their families and bystanders.
The symptoms of a cardiac arrest and a heart attack are different
After Gellis had her first cardiac arrest, she became a certified CPR instructor and has shared her story to raise awareness. She said that it is important to know the signs of a cardiac arrest, which is different from a heart attack.
According to the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation, when a person is having a heart attack they are awake and their heart will continue to beat.
Heart attacks happen when blood supply to the heart is reduced or blocked, and can cause discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes or goes away and comes back, the foundation says.
A cardiac arrest is when the heart stops beating altogether.
The foundation says that with a sudden cardiac arrest, victims won't be responsive or breathing normally and will need CPR and to be treated with an AED.
Gellis said: "If they're unconscious and not breathing normally, then you call, push, and shock." This refers to calling 911 and requesting an AED, pushing on the chest and starting CPR, and shocking them with an AED.
She said: "Anybody, no matter who you are, can empower themselves with knowledge to be confident to react."
CPR classes can help people feel comfortable in emergency situations, rather than getting overwhelmed, Gellis said. She added that people don't need qualifications to perform CPR and use an AED in an emergency situation.
The American Heart Association provides details of local CPR courses across the US.
And the answer to the $64,000 question is?
Oooh, fine!
Premature Vaxx Death Placemarker
I know, I know! 2015.
The media is suddenly posting all these stories (for some reason) regarding heart issues in those under 30 from prior to 2021. They are trying to create the narrative that young people dropping from heart attacks happens all the time.
Hint: It doesn’t. There is a reason those stories make the news. It is not normal.
The big difference between then and now is that heart attacks in the young is happening more often, after they have received the vax, and when they had no previous heart issues. And, they are mainly in young males who are active in sports.
The first one.
I don't think it works that way.
Oceania has always been at war with sudden cardiac arrest or heart attacks in young health people.
Do you ever so much as GLANCE at what you’re cut-n-pasting?
I always read it. What’s your complaint?
“I got my clot shot. How ‘bout you?”
“Almost effing killed me if they wouldn’t have cracked my ribs trying to keep me alive. And the jury’s still out on that one.”
Keep reading, she had another in 2022.
The place poisoned her!
Do you think someone who had one near fatal dysrhythmic event might be prone to another? Or did they just implant the ICD just for the fun of it and the big bucks?
My son knew a boy who died almost 20 years ago at the age of 14; he had had a few fainting episodes over the summer, and no diagnosis until he dropped where he stood.
2015. but it was probably still the vax 🙄🙄
Tell that to the group here who thinks SAD is a new diagnosis. It has been around all 37 years i have been practicing medicine
How unusual.(/s)
Is SAD a real diagnosis?
It's like when a doctor says, "You have idiopathic XYZ." Many doctors just can't bring themselves to admit they have no clue. [I am not saying you are like that, but plenty are.]
And the fact is, some of them say it's idiopathic, because they won't do the research or aren't creative enough. Because I've see doctors who do the research, and think about it.
Good one, Eric Blair.
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