Amanda Stephens had just kissed her family goodbye after a big dinner at home when her chest grew tight and painful. She was 57 years old, the mother of two adult children and five young grandchildren. Could it be her heart?, she wondered.
Her husband drove her quickly to Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center, where the Emergency Department team identified her as having a heart attack. Mrs. Stephens was rushed into the Hybrid Catheterization Lab, where the on-call catheterization team discovered her artery was 100% blocked. The Heart Center’s highly skilled interventional cardiology team placed two stents to restore proper blood flow. Mrs. Stephens survived a Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection, a rare cause of a heart attack.
“From the time we got to the hospital to the time that I was in the Cath Lab was probably 15 minutes or less. It was that fast,” Mrs. Stephens recalls. “The care in the Cath Lab and the people were absolutely amazing. They were well-equipped to take care of an emergency situation, which is what it was.”
Mrs. Stephens spent three nights at the Medical Center and miraculously was back to work on light duty in her printing services job the next week.
“I really feel that I am still here today because of the technology that Lakeland Regional Health has,” said Mrs. Stephens. “Their staff is trained to know just what to do at the right time.”