SANTAQUIN, Utah — On May 3, Justine Carter, a 33-year-old mother of two young children, stepped onto her treadmill to get some exercise. Just 12 minutes in, she felt sick.
Justine sent a video message to her sister describing her symptoms and saying, “I’m not dead yet, but I feel dead.”
Violent vomiting, shortness of breath and pain penetrating to her chest followed.
Justine would later learn she was experiencing a rare heart attack sparked by a Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD), meaning the inner layer of Justine’s artery had unexpectedly torn. As a result, her artery’s wall swelled and obstructed proper blood flow.
In the moment, however, Justine had no idea what was happening.
She called her husband, Kevin Carter. He raced home but stayed on the phone with Justine and their four-year-old son, Tucker.
Kevin’s mother, Teresa Carter, a long-time nurse at MountainStar Healthcare's Mountain View Hospital in Payson, also drove there to meet them.
“She stopped talking and I asked Tucker, ‘What's mom doing?’ ‘She's, she's sleeping, dad,’” Kevin said.
Shortly after they arrived, Teresa began CPR.
Kevin called 911 and Santaquin Fire & EMS arrived within four minutes.
“It was frightening, but that ‘nurse mode,’ if you will, just kind of kicked in and I just started doing what you do, you know, chest compressions,” Teresa said.
EMS took over CPR, working to bring Justine back to life.
“They just kept working on her here at our home, then, they started talking about, ‘Well, pretty soon we're going to have to call it,’” Kevin said.
That’s when Kevin says reality set in he may lose his wife and the mother of his children.
Justine’s body lay lifeless inside her home for 25 minutes.
Her heart did not beat, and she wasn’t breathing on her own.
Justine was in Ventricular fibrillation, or V-fib, the most common cause of sudden cardiac death.
It wasn’t until Santaquin Fire & EMS provided the fifth electrical shock on Justine’s body with an AED, that ultimately brought her back to life.
“I'm here because of them. Otherwise I wouldn't be here,” Justine said.
Emergency crews transported Justine, who was still unresponsive, to Mountain View Hospital, where physicians discovered she had suffered a SCAD.
She spent several days on a ventilator in the ICU in a medically induced coma. This allowed her body to rest and recover.
"They told me I had a heart attack," Justine said. "I remember my husband being there telling me what had happened and asking him if I was going be ok."
For three days, Kevin says it was a waiting game. The family prayed Justine would survive and that her neurological function would return.
“I knew the possibilities of brain damage,” Teresa said. “Thankfully, when she woke up, she knew us all! It felt like a miracle. It was a miracle.”
Dr. Mark Bair, the medical director over the emergency department at Mountain View Hospital and the ER physician who treated Justine, says he worried she would have ongoing brain damage because of the lack of oxygen from the incident.
“In her case, she was very lucky,” Dr. Bair said. “However, due to the wonderful things that were done in the field, first – her mother-in-law starting bystander CPR, jumping right on that – followed by the resuscitation efforts of our EMS crews and getting her heart rate back, and then the ongoing efforts in the hospital that preserved her brain function… today, she is perfectly normal.”
On Thursday, about three and a half months since the heart attack, Justine and her family were able to reunite in Santaquin with the EMS crew and Dr. Bair. Plenty of hugs were shared and tears were shed.
“All I can say is ‘thank you,’” Justine told first responders.
“It's truly amazing. These are calls that the crew will never forget,” Santaquin Fire & EMS Chief Ryan Lind said. “Getting to meet her tonight… That’ll stick with them forever.”
So often, Chief Lind says, people don’t know what EMS personnel do until they experience a life-altering event like this one.
“It's very important for the crew and for the city to see the hard work and dedication that the members of the fire and EMS play,” Chief Lind said. “We often don't see the outcome of our patients. We hear maybe they were discharged, but to see this young lady alive with her family today and to be able to have the mother here for her children… it’s amazing to see.”
Justine is focused on rebuilding her heart’s strength and living life to the fullest.
“My life has definitely changed. I feel like I'm trying to be more intentional with my time," Justine said. "Everything is small now. We don't have to rush. Take your time, love your family, love those around you."
