He woke up to his wife gasping for air. Her heart had stopped.
By Diane Daniel, 糖心Vlog News
Kayla Messana could finally relax. The most challenging year of her life was over.
Her husband, John, was back home after serving a year in Iraq and Afghanistan, working as a diesel mechanic. He’d been in the Army National Guard for 15 years, but it was his first deployment. At the time, their sons were 2, 7 and 12. Kayla was also busy at her dream job as a kindergarten assistant.
Starting in late March 2022, Kayla and John spent time visiting relatives and making new memories with their boys.
One evening in early June, John took their middle son to a baseball game in their hometown of Londonderry, New Hampshire. When they got home, Kayla was on the couch watching TV. Soon after, they all went to bed.
A few hours later, John was startled out of a deep sleep.
Kayla was taking big gasps of air. It was as if she’d been underwater for minutes and had just surfaced.
John shook her. She didn’t respond.
Her long hair had fallen over her face. When he moved it out of the way, he saw her eyes bulging and her tongue hanging out of her mouth.
As John dialed 911, he dragged Kayla from the bed to the floor. He then ran to the front door to unlock it for the first responders.
He remembered only the basics of CPR. The dispatcher talked him through the chest compressions – where to place the hands, how deep to press – and kept him in rhythm.
The children stayed asleep, even when the ambulance arrived 10 minutes later with its siren blaring.
When EMTs took over chest compressions, John collapsed and crawled out of the room.
EMTs alternated between CPR and using an automated external defibrillator, or AED. The device can help restart a heart that has stopped due to cardiac arrest. After two shocks, Kayla regained a sustainable pulse. The rescue crew then took her to the closest hospital.
Over the next 24 hours, she had five more episodes of cardiac arrest.
The next day, Kayla was transferred to a more specialized hospital in Boston.
Doctors told John they were going to place her in an induced coma to let Kayla’s body heal from the trauma and to try minimizing brain damage. Life-support machines would pump her heart and lungs.
They told him that they didn’t know if the lack of oxygen while her heart had been stopped would result in cognitive or physical deficits.
Four days later, about 30 family members were gathered in the waiting room when Kayla regained consciousness.
Within a day, John could tell that his wife was still there.
“When her freckles started popping out, that really gave us hope,” he said. “And her sense of humor was back.”
Doctors performed a battery of tests aimed at determining why the power went out in Kayla’s heart. (Cardiac arrest is a malfunction of the heart’s electrical system. A heart attack refers to a blockage more akin to a plumbing problem.)
At 31, she had no hereditary or lifestyle issues. She’d also had no symptoms leading up to her cardiac arrest.
When doctors tried to perform a cardiac biopsy and catheterization, they found their answer: Kayla experienced episodes of ventricular fibrillation. V-fib is a life-threatening heart rhythm disorder that can cause cardiac arrest.
As a defense against it, Kayla received in her chest an implantable cardioverter defibrillator. The ICD monitors her heart's rhythm. If it detects a problem, it can shock the heart back into a normal rhythm.
There was another problem, too.
Doctors told Kayla that she was in an early stage of heart failure. This means her heart muscle wasn’t squeezing hard enough to efficiently pump enough blood to the rest of her body. It’s measured by what’s called ejection fraction, and hers was significantly below the normal range. They gave her medication to help improve it.
Once home, Kayla’s heart failure left her feeling sapped of energy. Carrying a basket of laundry upstairs was exhausting.
Still, because it was summer break, she tried doing as many activities with the boys as she could. She also tried to tend to her garden, a favorite activity. But all of it meant fighting through dizziness, shortness of breath and heart palpitations. She also battled some minor memory lapses, likely from her oxygen deprivation during the cardiac arrests.
“Every ounce of normalcy was ripped away from me,” she said. “In the beginning, I was so terrified I could hardly sleep.”
John struggled too. He dreaded going to bed and would wake up frequently to check if Kayla was still breathing. He put night lights in every room so he’d never wake up in darkness again.
By the end of that summer, Kayla had developed a new attitude. Instead of bemoaning what she couldn’t do, she embraced what she could.
“Wow, I’ve been given a chance at a second life,” she thought, “and I’ve got to live it.”
She returned to work in the fall. The pace proved too demanding. In early 2023, she switched to a part-time job as a reading coach.
At the same time, she took the opportunity to pursue a dream goal: writing children’s books. She’s now self-published three, all colorfully illustrated tales aimed at young readers.
She also started a small business with a friend – a mobile cotton candy cart, which they take to parties and events.
In early 2024, Kayla was awakened in the middle of the night by a shock from her ICD. Details downloaded from the device and details from her cardiac arrest led to another diagnosis.
Kayla has polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, or PVT, a serious heart rhythm disorder characterized by rapid, irregular, and constantly changing heartbeats. It’s now being managed by medication, although she still feels symptoms, such as low energy, dizziness and heart palpitations.
As for her heart failure, it’s improved. Her ejection fraction measures are higher, although still below normal range.
Yet Kayla’s appreciation for her second chance remains. It’s why she and John are eager to spread the word about the importance of knowing CPR.
“CPR is the reason I’m alive,” she said.
Kayla has another mission: to show that heart disease can happen to younger people too.
She recalled one incident in the cardiac ICU.
An elderly man walked by her and said, “You don’t belong on this floor.”
“You’re right, sir,” she answered. “But here I am.”
Stories From the Heart chronicles the inspiring journeys of heart disease and stroke survivors, caregivers and advocates.