After working out on a treadmill, Justine Carter (33) - a Utah mom - felt pain in her back that irradiated to her chest as well as shortness of breath. At the time, she was recording herself for social media, with the clip showing her saying: "That was not a good idea. I should have listened to my body." Justine was, in fact, experiencing a heart attack.
Videos by Wide Open Country
That is when she decided to call her husband, Kevin, after audibly stating that she didn't feel so good. When Kevin picked up the phone, he could hear Justine vomiting initially. However, she stopped speaking afterward, and Tucker, their four-year-old son, told his father that she was "sleeping."
Kevin then rushed home alongside his mother Teresa. They found Justine having a seizure in their bathroom and, later, her heart stopped. Fortunately, Teresa is a nurse at Mountain View Hospital - one of HCA Healthcare's hospitals -, so she started to perform CPR on Justine.
Minutes later, Santaquin Fire and EMS arrived and managed to revive Justine's heartbeat through compressions and shocks with an automated external defibrillator.
A Lethal Condition, Detected
"The next thing I knew, I woke up in the hospital," Justine told Fox News. In the hospital, medical staff medically induced her into a coma to treat her on the ICU ventilator. After recovering, Justine learned she suffered from a Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD).
According to HCA Healthcare, the event was described as follows: "The inner layer of Justine's artery had unexpectedly torn, and resulted in the swelling of her artery's wall and obstructed vital blood flow." This not only caused an initial heart attack when the event occurred but a second one just a week later. Thankfully, after her induced coma, Justine managed to recover and reunite with her family.
Speaking about SCAD, Dr. Mark Bair - medical director of the emergency department at Mountain View Hospital - told Fox News Digital: "Although it is not clear what causes SCAD, patients are often women - very similar to Justine's case - who are otherwise healthy." Dr. Bair was the physician who treated Justine.
"Extreme physical and emotional stress are risk factors, as is fibromuscular dysplasia, which affects arterial blood vessels, genetic connective tissue disorders and very high blood pressure," said Dr. Bair, regarding potential risk factors for SCAD.
