Survivor Andrea Kramer

Andrea Kramer had all the risk factors - a history of heart disease, high blood pressure and cholesterol, diabetes, and she was a smoker - yet she thought medication and exercise kept these under control.

One weekend, Andrea experienced chest tightness. By Monday morning, the tightness was intense pain. In the emergency room, doctors discovered four arteries were 80 percent blocked. She was on the verge of a massive heart attack.

Two and a half years after open heart surgery, Andrea is doing much better. She has retired from her stressful bank executive job, and the most pressing decision of her day is what to do with her free time. “Being a woman, we always insist on taking care of everyone else first,” she says. “We have to learn to let certain things go, be selfish, and take care of ourselves.”

Survivor Lindsay Haseltine

Hello, my name is Lindsay Haseltine. You probably do not recognize my name, because I am just an ordinary person who, before Sept. 14, 2007, would not have been asked to tell her story. It is a story about being in the right place at the right time. About the difference between being prepared or unprepared. About the difference between life and death. Without any prior history of heart disease, I experienced Sudden Cardiac Death.

The diagnosis was dilated cardiomyopathy. Without any recognizable warning signs, my heart stopped. Flat-lined, dead. I thankfully was at a quarterly advisory council meeting at Blue Cross Blue Shield. My doctor tells me it only takes about 4 to 5 minutes without blood and oxygen for the brain to suffer damage. It only took a second for a BCBS employee to notice I was sliding out of my chair. In perfect synchronicity, another called 911. Within a minute, a doctor made his way from his office to the meeting room to administer CPR, and the security guard from the front desk raced to me with an AED (automated electronic defibrillator). Before the paramedics arrived,
my heart was restarted. These quick actions saved my life.

The individuals involved in my story are all heroes. The doctor says I am amazing and I exceed expectations - but they all exceed my expectations! I’m telling this is so others, too, can be prepared and be heroes - so that others, too, can survive.