- Lauren Canady, 39, from Virginia, went into cardiac arrest eight months ago.
- She survived because her husband performed CPR and the paramedics responded.
- Now she's sharing the unexpected blessings of a 'second life' on the other side
A 39-year-old woman who went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced clinically dead for 24 minutes says she feels like she's been given a “second life” and describes the unexpected blessing it brought her. Told.
Lauren Canady from Virginia spoke in an interview about what it's really like to die before being resuscitated and how it changed her. newsweek.
“People say that death is just a part of life, and I take that literally,” Canady said.
She experienced a sudden cardiac arrest at home eight months ago, and her blood stopped flowing normally for 24 minutes.
Cannady said he had been treated for controlled epilepsy for years and on that fateful day suffered a grand mal seizure that caused violent muscle contractions and loss of consciousness. She held her breath.
“My husband was across the hall and heard me say, 'Oh, shit,'” Canady told Newsweek.
“He rushed over and found me unconscious on the floor. I had stopped breathing and I was blue.”
Canady's husband called 911 before administering CPR to his weakened wife until paramedics arrived. Miraculously, doctors were able to restore Canady's heartbeat after giving her four electric shocks using a defibrillator.
She was taken to the intensive care unit, where doctors diagnosed her with myocarditis (a disease in which the heart muscle becomes inflamed and loses its ability to pump oxygen around the body) and the onset of COVID-19.
Canady said doctors are speculating whether her coronavirus infection triggered the incident.
Incredibly, she was discharged from the ICU just nine days later. And Canady said that after her memory returned, she realized that her way of thinking had fundamentally changed after the episode.
“The first few days were very frustrating because I had no short-term memory and couldn't understand what was going on. And it was very uncomfortable,” she said.
But once she began to recover and doctors said she was “cognitively intact,” Canady said she found overwhelming joy in the small moments, from taking a shower to eating a hospital cheeseburger. Told.
“I remember a lot of very calm moments during and after the hospital, where before I didn't feel like I had any worries, and then I got super excited about things like cheeseburgers. Things felt so simple. ” she said.
“I feel like this is my second life,” Canady added. “I feel like I have two birthdays.
“In my first life, I was very individual and strong. In this life, I have a completely different worldview and for the most part I am used to depending on others …
“Many things, such as status and career success, are of no importance other than the need for survival, creature comforts, and helping others.”
Mr. Canady admitted that he was forced to quit his job, but he spent his free time writing a memoir called “Independence Avenue: How Individualism Killed Me and Community Brought Me Back.'' was written and published in November.
This book explores living with a chronic illness and how to rebuild your life after a traumatic event upends it.
Canady said she now prioritizes simple things in her life, like getting enough sleep, eating healthy, exercising, meditating and strengthening her relationships.
“Whenever I can, I try to walk 10,000 steps a day and hike once a week,” she said. “I take a lot of time to be quiet, like silent prayer or meditation. Most nights I go to bed around 8 p.m.”
Ms Cannady said she is passionate about sharing her story because many others have had similar experiences and she hopes her words will help them. .
She is one of the lucky ones, as only 10 percent of people who experience sudden cardiac arrest at home survive.
In January, the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation launched the Arrest Survivor Alliance to support survivors and their relatives through an online global community.
