Ontario woman survives cardiac arrest in NYC, thanks to stepson’s CPR

Article content

Brampton phys-ed teacher Lindsay MacOdrum is lucky to be alive.

Article content

While the 41-year-old resident of Rockwood — about 80 kilometres northwest of Toronto — was biking through New York City’s Central Park on June 15 with her family, she suffered a cardiac arrest and had no pulse for 30 minutes.

Article content

Article content

Dr. Dan Pugliese, her doctor at New York City’s Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital, credits her recovery on the fact that her 17-year-old stepson, Maddox, performed CPR on her right away.

“It’s the reason you’re able to talk to her now,” said Pugliese, a specialist in heart rhythm disorders.

“CPR is critical at maintaining blood flow. It basically externally compresses the heart and it pumps the blood through the body and, in short, the brain is able to get enough blood flow so the brain stays preserved.”

Article content

Article content

Otherwise, the situation was dire: MacOdrum was given a 10% chance of surviving on the way to the hospital as she was shocked five times by paramedics hoping to revive her. The Central Park Ambulance team also administered shocks to her two times before that.

TOOK LAST BREATH

“I kind of took my last breath and I kind of started foaming at the mouth,” said MacOdrum, who happened to be in New York while attending her nine-year-old son, Tommy’s hockey tournament in New Jersey.

“They actually thought I was having a seizure. So (my husband) was calling for help right away and then they realized, I’m actually not breathing. I was like dead ,” added MacOdrum, whose treatment was covered by OHIP.

‘My angel’

“So then Maddox, my stepson, started CPR. He said to my husband, ‘OK, we need to do CPR, we need to start it.’ What’s wild is the week before, he did a CPR course for his camp counsellor job,” she added. “Like what are the chances? It was insane. He’s like my angel.”

Article content

The elementary school teacher said a doctor and a nurse, who happened to be in Central Park, took over on CPR for another six minutes before the Central Park ambulance arrived.

In a coma after arriving at the hospital, medical personnel put MacOdrum on a ventilator and her parents and brother were advised to make the trip to say their goodbyes.

Recommended video

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Play Video

“My family flew in that night because they weren’t sure if I would make it through the night,” said MacOdrum. “It’s a miracle that I’m alive.”

It turns out MacOdrum had some earlier symptoms — which she ignored.  She’d had to pause during her daily runs because she was out of breath, she felt tired when she was teaching, and just days before, she felt shoulder pain while watching her son’s hockey tournament.

Article content

“We have to be mindful of times when something’s not quite right,” said Pugliese.  “Younger people are much more willing to say, ‘No, I’m young, I’m healthy.  I’m fine. Let me just kind of push through.’”

Five days later in hospital, MacOdrum started to improve and a cardiac MRI detected she had an irregular heart beat linked to an undetected weakening of the heart muscle, which ultimately put her in heart failure and led to cardiac arrest.

Cardiologists did an emergency procedure to place an defibrillator in her heart — a device that delivers a shock when required to ensure the organ beats in a normal rhythm.

FLEW HOME WITH A NURSE

After 12 days in the hospital, MacOdrum was able to fly home on a commercial flight with a nurse at her side.

Article content

“Sudden cardiac death is pretty rare in general — it’s sort of one in 1,000 in the U.S.,” said Pugliese.

“But most of those people will have significant known cardiac disease. They tend to be older, they tend to have other medical problems — high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, things like that,” he said. “So, in general, it’s a pretty rare thing for a young, otherwise healthy person, who exercises regularly, has no real medical problems, to — for lack of a better term — drop dead.”

Right now, MacOdrum is walking about eight kilometres daily and doing some light weight training, with an eye to returning to work in January.

“One thing I’ve learned is if there is anything you’re not sure of, go get it checked out because you never know,” she said. “And more people need to take a CPR course.”

Article content