After a dinner together at their Virginia home, Elizabeth Jackson and her daughter’s family went to the living room and settled in to watch a movie.
Because it was a Friday the 13th, they picked a horror film.
As the movie began, Elizabeth yelled out, “Wait!” Her head jerked back against the upholstery and a soft snore escaped her lips, drawing the attention of her 17-year-old granddaughter, Madison J.
MJ turned and saw that Elizabeth was turning blue. MJ grabbed her grandmother’s wrist to feel for a pulse, but there wasn’t one.
In school, MJ had just learned about the signs of cardiac arrest and how to perform CPR. “Call 911!” she called out. Then she laid Elizabeth down on the sofa and started chest compressions.
The 911 operator told the family to move her to the floor and perform CPR there. MJ’s dad, Jon, helped ease his mother-in-law onto the floor. He took over doing CPR until emergency responders arrived. They treated Elizabeth until her heart had a sustainable rhythm, then took her to the hospital.
For three days, Elizabeth lay in a coma. When she woke up, she looked around her hospital room wondering why she wasn’t at work. She couldn’t remember anything from the previous few days, including her last day at preschool.
Nurses explained she’d experienced cardiac arrest. Elizabeth wasn’t completely shocked by the news.
Three years earlier, while living in Arizona, she’d been diagnosed with heart failure. Because her mother had died from heart disease, Elizabeth already knew family history was a risk factor.
Elizabeth received a pacemaker. She was in her late 50s when her doctor said that she had “the heart of an 80-year-old.” Getting the pacemaker gave her a sense of security.
The day before she moved to Virginia, Elizabeth went to an emergency room because she was coughing up mucus that had built up in her lungs. A doctor recommended she have a defibrillator implanted to protect against cardiac arrest.
Because she lacked time and was between insurance coverage, Elizabeth put it off. Once she settled in Virginia, getting established with a local cardiologist had slipped through the cracks. That meant her pacemaker data wasn’t being monitored.
Following her cardiac arrest, doctors did review the data. They found that she’d been having irregular heartbeats. She also had pneumonia; weeks earlier, she’d had COVID-19.
Several days after waking from her coma, Elizabeth got a defibrillator. She spent the next three weeks in the hospital working on daily tasks like bathing and tying her shoes. Her students sent her get-well cards that brightened her days.
A month after her cardiac arrest, Elizabeth was strong enough to walk a mile side-by-side with her family in her local American Heart Association Heart Walk in October 2024.
“My granddaughter is brave and intelligent, and she knew right away she had to take charge,” Elizabeth said. MJ’s teen sister, Morgan, later learned Hands-Only CPR, too.
“Miracles are possible,” added Elizabeth. “CPR saves lives.”
Elizabeth went back to work and taught for six months until she felt physically depleted. Her last day before taking leave was her birthday.
She wanted to celebrate with her class, so she decorated her classroom with streamers, brought bubbles and cake, and made a gift bag for each student with a personalized note.
At home, Elizabeth couldn’t stop worrying about having another cardiac arrest, even though she knew her defibrillator was there to protect her. For months, she was scared to be by herself or drive alone.
At church, she prayed. She meditated, too. Gradually, Elizabeth started facing her fear by spending time alone. She would let loved ones know her plans, and the fear started to fade. Elizabeth felt confident enough to move out of her family’s home into her own apartment. Now 61, she’s back at work full time, teaching toddlers.
Therapy helped her figure out the next chapter of her life, and she is excited to plan for the future. One dream is to write a children’s book that tells her story and teaches kids about the signs and symptoms of heart events like hers.
“I’m not the same woman I was before,” Elizabeth said. “I’m moving forward. And I want others to know that you can live past the fear. I have a second chance at life, and my question to myself now is, ‘Liz, what are you going to do with this new lease on life?’”
If you care about heart disease, please read studies that herbal supplements could harm your heart rhythm, and how eating eggs can help reduce heart disease risk.
For more health information, please see recent studies that apple juice could benefit your heart health, and results showing yogurt may help lower the death risks in heart disease.
Written by Deborah Lynn Blumberg, American Heart Association.
