“I ended up going into full cardiac arrest,” 30yo man thought that chest pain and numbness in his arm after working out were due to tiredness and resting would help, but doctors later said he went into full cardiac arrest
A 30-year-old man suffered ‘massive heart attack’ earlier this year and he is still alive and recovering today only thanks to his friends with prior medical experience who made him go to the hospital after he felt “severe” chest pain and numbness in his arm after two-hour workout. In an interview last week, the man decided to share the story with the public in an effort to raise awareness and make people listen their bodies because he almost did a mistake that could have been fatal for him.
Speaking to Today few days ago, the 30-year-old E. Bradshaw explained how he felt “severe” chest pain and numbness in his arm after a two-hour Brazilian jiu-jitsu practice in February this year. Initially, he thought that he was tired after the workout and decided to take a rest hoping that the first-time strange feeling will simply go away. Since he was not getting any better even after few hours, he called some of his friends with prior medical experience who forced him to visit the nearest hospital right away.
Bradshaw was initially refusing, but he changed his mind and visited a local hospital after many of his friends, family relatives and colleagues urged him to. On his way to the hospital, he called his wife and asked her to meet him there. By the time he was there, Bradshaw health condition worsened and he went into cardiac arrest. “I ended up going into full cardiac arrest,” he said. “Thankfully I didn’t fight five minutes longer. I wouldn’t be here (if I did).”
It turned out that changing his mind was most certainly the best decision in his life because shortly after he was admitted to hospital, he was told that he had just suffered a ‘massive heart attack’. If Bradshaw, who is N.C. based police officer, arrived five minutes later at the hospital, he would have died. When he arrived in the emergency room, his wife was waiting for him. The rest is a blur as he has zero recall of what happened next. Instead, he only has a timeline of events, thanks to the recollections of his wife and his mother-in-law (who works at the hospital).
While he was still in the waiting room, Bradshaw collapsed and he went into cardiac arrest. Doctors spent 40 minutes performing CPR and during that time, he was shocked seven times. When the emergency room employees finally managed to get his pulse back, he was transferred to Forsyth Medical Center for further treatment.
Bradshaw’s wife, Mickaela, said that she considers her husband very healthy, even healthier than her, because he has healthy eating habits. In addition, she said that Bradshaw is very active, works out every day and he has never had any prior problems with his health. Mickaela recalled that despite doctors’ efforts, they couldn’t make his heart work properly so they placed a tiny heart pump (known as an Impella CP), which allowed his heart to rest before stents were placed.
Form that point, Bradshaw was placed on ventilator support. He already had developed pneumonia which further worsened when doctors tried to switch off the ventilator support two days later. Bradshaw was placed back on ventilator again and he started antibiotics therapy. When the therapy finally started working after some time, Mickaela’s husband was spending less and less time on ventilator support during the day and his condition started improving. “I would say probably by day five after the second one being put in he was starting to make a large improvement,” Mickaela explained. “Everything started to look good,” she added.
Mickaela was 23 weeks pregnant when the incident took place. She spent weeks in the hospital alongside her husband, until he was finally released home where he continued his recovery. When he was taken off the ventilator, Bradshaw had to undergo physical and occupational therapy to build up his strength. Since then, he has seen huge improvement and earlier this month, Bradshaw returned to patrol while still attending cardiac rehab. The couple are looking forward to welcoming their son in July.
“I always thought heart attacks happened to old people who didn’t take care of themselves,” he said. “I want people to listen to their body,” he finished his interview.