heart attack

Stops Young Mother In Her Tracks

how stress and emotional health took a toll on one woman’s heart

Kadie Stoltz, a 35-yearold mother of three, would have been considered a healthy, active woman before she suddenly collapsed from a heart attack on Nov. 25, 2018. Her 8-year-old daughter, Sloan, did not fully understand what was happening to her mother, but she knew something was seriously wrong. After her mother collapsed, Sloan used FaceTime to call her aunt, who instructed her to go to her neighbor’s house for help while her uncle called 911.

“She’s always been like that as a child; she keeps her composure and she’s very observant,” Stoltz says of her daughter. “I think she just trusts my sister enough that she thought, ‘If I call my aunt, she’ll be able to help me.’”

Sloan ran barefoot through the snow to her neighbor Mark Donarski’s house. “He just thought she was coming over to say hi,” Stoltz explains. He soon noticed, however, that Sloan was barefoot and her aunt was yelling for him to help her on the phone.

Donarski followed Sloan to the house and began performing CPR. “He was there for a couple of minutes before the fire department arrived,” Stoltz says. “They used the defibrillator, and shortly after, the paramedics arrived.”

Stoltz was taken by ambulance to Sanford Medical Center in Fargo where she was admitted to the intensive care unit after suffering a heart attack known as SCAD. “SCAD stands for Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection and is a rare form of a heart attack usually related to stress and hormonal changes,”

Sanford Health cardiologist Dr. Susan Farkas says. “It’s very uncommon for young women to have heart attacks, especially without any known risk factors.”

On Sunday night, Stoltz says she was sedated and cooled to try to regulate her body. The following Tuesday, she opened her eyes for the first time. On Wednesday she was able to respond to commands from her doctor, and that afternoon had an angiogram and a stent put in.

Stoltz says she doesn’t remember anything from that day, but does remember the day before. “I went to a CrossFit class that I always go to,” Stoltz recalls. “My parents had come down for the weekend, and we did our normal routine with the kids.”

“The day of, I had what I thought was a little bit of heartburn, but that’s it,” Stoltz says.

Prior to her heart attack, Stoltz had been very active. “I had just completed my first half-marathon in October,” she says. Since the heart attack, however, her routine has changed.

“We have slowed down. We spend more quality time with friends and family and at home,” Stoltz explains. “I’m trying to reduce stress and anxiety as we are learning that mental and emotional health is very connected to heart health.”

Stoltz is also attending Sanford’s Cardiac Rehab. “I go a few times a week, and I try to walk on the treadmill at home when I can. I’m hopeful that I will eventually start running again,” she says.

As far as looking back on the incident, Stoltz says it was eye-opening. “It was a wake-up-call to me that living in the now is very important, and you have to just take things one day at a time.”

Stoltz credits family and friends with helping alleviate some of the stress. “We have amazing friends and family who help take the kids when there are appointments, and help with getting them to and from school and activities,” she says. “I’m pretty self-sufficient now, but it’s so nice to have all of the help we do.”

Throughout this process, Stoltz recalls how amazed she has been with the team at Sanford Health. “The many different medical staff I have come into contact with have not only focused on my heart and physical health,” she says, “but also how I’m doing overall and how I’m handling things. It has made me more comfortable in expressing my fears and uncertainties.”

According to Stoltz, the gratitude her family has for the amount of support they received from the community, family, friends and the Sanford staff that cared for her is profound. “We could never say thank you enough to everyone who prayed and sent well wishes,” she says.