February is American Heart Month, and to celebrate, the Today show is featuring stories about heart health. One woman shared hers in the hopes that she can help others who might find themselves in the same scary situation that she was in.
Brittany Williams' story could have had a sad ending. She went into cardiac arrest in a Times Square restaurant in New York City in 2014 when she was just 24 years old. Two ophthalmologists who happened to be eating in the same establishment saved her life by giving her CPR for eight minutes until help could arrive. She woke up in the hospital two days later after being placed in a medically induced coma.
Cardiac arrest is often misunderstood and thought of as a heart attack. When the heart’s muscle acts up and stops beating due to an electrical issue, a cardiac arrest occurs. Most of the time if this happens outside of the hospital, it is fatal. It is possible to reverse it with the use of CPR and a defibrillator. Brittany urges everyone to learn CPR. You never know when you can save a life.
Brittany also spoke out about a warning sign she ignored because of her young age and good health. "I was at work, and all of a sudden the left side of my body went numb and tingly," she recalled. "I sat back and thought, 'Oh no, this doesn't feel right. This is not what I feel like on a day-to-day basis.'"
Brittany told her boss, who dismissed it because she was so young and healthy. "You're 24 years old. You run five miles a day. You eat extremely healthy, that would never happen to you," Brittany remembered her boss saying. Unfortunately, Brittany followed her boss’s misguided advice. "I trusted her. And three days later, I was on the ground in a restaurant in Times Square with no pulse,” Brittany stated.
To hear more of Brittany's story and advice, watch this video.
