Saturday Morning

Saturday morning Richard took Mindy to the airport at 5:00 am for her to fly out to Utah for Spring Break. We hadn't heard anything from the hospital so we assumed that things were the same as the night before. Around 9am Jami talked to Mom and she was having a hard time. She was throwing up and suffering from a bad headache. In the ER she had been given a patch of nitroglycerin and it was the cause of the headache, the throwing up was from the headache. Jami called Richard at home and he was not aware of Mom's condition. The hospital had not yet tried to reach him. Richard was on his way to the hospital when they finally called him. (After she had suffered the heart attack.) Around 9:30 Jami tried to call back and got no answer. It was at that time that Susan was suffering a major heart attack. (Click on the link for more information on what caused the heart attack) http://www.nationalgeographic.com/human-heart/your-heart.html#/blockingTheArtery/ Richard got there just after this had all happened. Susan had gotten up to go to the bathroom and while coming out crashed to the floor. The doctor's were just outside the room and rushed right in. Her heart was not beating and they had to use the defibrillator on her two times. They found a pulse and prepared to transfer her to Inova Fairfax Hospital. Her blood pressure was extremely low. They used a medi-vac to transport her. Richard was driven over to the other hospital by a technician. Upon arrival at the hospital they put a catheter in her right leg and found that the right coronary artery of her heart was 100% blocked and the left coronary artery was 45-60% blocked. (Click on the link for more information on angiograms) http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0702/feature1/gallery11.html They placed 2 stents in her right artery through the catheter. (Click on the link for more information on stents) http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0702/feature1/gallery12.html At this point things were looking grim. They intubated her and put her on a respirator and a feeding tube. They had her hooked up to a medicine that kept the heart beating. Her blood pressure was extremely low. They also put a pump in through her left leg that would pump the heart every time it beat. So the heart was not doing anything on its own. Susan's condition at this point was guarded, extremely critical. She was in the CCU with 2 nurses assigned just to her. The doctors and nurses all agree that if Susan had not been in the hospital at the time of the attack she would not be with us today. What a blessing that was! At this point Richard called Jami and Cori, Jeremy and Amanda. Jami, Cori, Jayson, Ayden and Emelia all got in the car and drove down from NYC. They arrived around 2pm. Jeremy and Amanda were waiting for Mindy to land in Utah before deciding what to do next. Once Mindy landed, they looked for flights to go back to VA. They were able to get on a direct flight and arrived in VA at around 11pm.