A Tale of Survival Craig’s Story
Craig remembers his last trip. He spent time in sunny Florida, staying at his favorite bed and breakfast. On the flight home he reminisced about the wonderful experience and how well everything was going… until it wasn’t.
Craig did not make it home that day. The last thing he remembers is talking to his cousin while driving home from the airport before everything went black: Craig suffered cardiac arrest.
Still on airport grounds, Craig’s cousin pulled over, removed Craig from the car, began CPR and called 9-1-1. Airport police soon responded and took over CPR for 10 minutes. Once the paramedics arrived, they performed CPR for another 35 minutes and administered two defibrillator shocks that restarted Craig’s heart.
Craig was transported to Adventist Health Portland, a hospital known for exceptional cardiac care. Because his heart stopped beating for so long and because he met other criteria, he was eligible to participate in a national clinical trial to determine the optimal body temperature cooling time for cardiac-arrest patients. Cooling is a standard emergency treatment that uses ice packs, a machine that cools the blood, or both to enhance recovery and protect the brain.
Craig was unconscious for the next three days while receiving the cooling machine treatments, then he was gradually rewarmed. Soon after, he underwent a procedure to install an internal cardioverter-defibrillator to monitor his heart and restore a regular rhythm when necessary.
“I was in the hospital at Adventist Health Portland for a week… I was in the cardiovascular unit and everyone took outstanding care of me,” Craig shared.
Craig applauds his care team, who made him feel confident that he was in good hands. Craig shared, “My cousin and I want to thank the nurses. They were so kind and took care of me and my family.”
Though he survived the heart attack, Craig’s journey was far from over. After a surgery to prevent future cardiac events, Craig needed in-home care to help him through his recovery. “[My home health nurse] was very nice. He even told me that if something came up I needed help with I could text him — even on the weekends! I’d give him an A+,” he said.
Craig gives a bag of homegrown apples to the Adventist Heatlh Portland cardiac rehabilitation team.
Since his surgery, Craig has been coming back to Adventist Health Portland twice a week for cardiac rehabilitation to get his heart back into shape. “I feel so much stronger. When this first happened, I could barely make it up a flight of stairs; now I don’t bother waiting for the elevator.”
Recently, Craig went to Las Vegas for a work trip and walked almost ten miles a day. “That’s something I wouldn’t have been able to do without Adventist Health,” he shared.