Home

Survivors

CPR

AED Machines

SCA

Survivors of Sudden Cardiac Arrest

Survivors of Suuden Cardiac Arrest are a vital part of educating main stream American about the number 1 cause of death in America. They have survived a sudden cardiac arrest and share their stories here in the hopes that others may benefit from their experience.

Do you have a story to share? Contact us!

Brian Trotter

Save Date: July 2, 2008

Just six months ago I survived V-Fib and SCA. Before this happened, I had completed four marathons, the last one just four months before this happened. I was considered by most of my family and friends to be Mr. Healthy. I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't eat fast food, and I maintain a relatively healthy diet, with the occasional junk food splurges. I love challenges, and running marathons and seeing how far I could push my body was a great way to set goals for myself and then swell with pride when I crushed them.

This past July, I was out running through the city training for an ultra-marathon. After two miles into it, I stopped to get a drink of water and suddenly got light-headed, my vision got really dark and I fainted. I came to just a few moments later lying on the sidewalk with the strangest intense tingling sensation running through my body, and of course a headache from where my head smacked the pavement.

Pamela Bonin

SCA-Survior04 Age: 26
Save Date: September 5, 2007
Activity: Attending a meeting

I was the Special Events Manager at Oliver Winery in Bloomington, Indiana. I was gearing up for the most important and exciting event of the year. At this point in my life, I am 26 year old - trying to find my way professionally and lead a balanced healthy lifestyle - having fun, working hard, running half-marathons and never thinking that my life would be changed by sudden cardiac arrest. There was not a family history of heart problems, and I have never had any symptoms.

On September 5, 2007, while at a manager meeting the morning of the big event, I collapsed in my chair. There was no warning. Someone had just told a joke and my co-workers thought I was laughing, but then quickly realized something was wrong.

Stephen Johnson

SCA-Survior02 Age: 52
Save Date: May 27, 2007 and October 29, 2009
Activity: Exercising on treadmill

I am a paramedic who encountered one the most challenging calls of my career on May 27, 2007 at the age of 52: my own cardiac arrest.

I was working out at the firehouse on shift on the treadmill when I started having an uncomfortable feeling in my chest. I slowed down and walked awhile and then got off the treadmill and took a full aspirin. I walked out to the ambulance were some of the other paramedics were training. They put me on the monitor and ran a 12 lead EKG. This showed I was having a heart attack, a STEMI MI.

En route to the hospital I arrested five times.

Ryan Arnold

SCA-Survior03 Age: 25
Save Date: June 16, 2009
Activity: playing softball

When Ryan Arnold woke up in a strange room with no idea how he got there, the first thing that crossed his mind also happened to be the first thing he saw just a few moments later.

"It was her," he said, looking at his fiancée, Jamie Sawyer. "She was right there by my side."

Arnold, 25, spent nearly four days in the hospital - including almost two in a medically induced coma