Last year, I got the kind of phone call no one ever wants to receive. It was my dad, calling to tell me my mom had been in an accident. She was driving herself to the hospital with chest pain when she went into cardiac arrest and veered off the road. A stranger found her unresponsive and called 911. She was rushed to Abbott Northwestern.
I broke down. 1,000 miles away and completely helpless. The three-hour flight home to Minneapolis felt like a lifetime. The uncertainty was unbearable. Thoughts of planning my mom’s funeral began to creep in. Walking into the ICU and seeing my best friend, my mom, unconscious is something I’ll never forget.
How could this be happening? She’s young. Healthy. She was literally playing pickleball that morning. Doctors explained she’d had a rare heart attack caused by Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD) — a tear in her artery wall that cut off blood flow to her heart and oxygen to her brain. A complete freak accident.
The days that followed were long and heartbreaking. But my mom is tough. A fighter. And somehow, she keeps getting stronger every day.
It’s a painful, humbling thing to realize your parents aren’t invincible. But I know my mom wouldn’t be here without the incredible progress made in cardiovascular research, and the doctors, nurses and specialists who dedicate their lives to saving others.
And to anyone who donated last year (before my femur had other plans): THANK YOU. All donations carried over and will now support every mile I run this November. Let's do this!
