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Terri Grace
It was March 1 when Newport
resident Terri Grace, 52, woke up
sweating and weak with sharp
pain near her esophagus. She lay
there for two hours, hoping the
pain would go away.
“I’d had chest pain before; usually, it
went away after about 15 minutes,” Grace
said. “This time, it just slammed me.”
Grace woke her daughter, who had just
returned from Phuket, Thailand, and
told her to take her to the emergency
department at Samaritan Pacific
Communities Hospital in Newport.
Her daughter, still a bit worn from her
trip, had some difficulty locating the
hospital at first; by the time they
arrived at the ER, Grace had “died.”
“I was actually gone: I’d flatlined,” Grace
said. “But that cardiac crew gave me the
best care. They saved my life!”
In the Newport ER, the cardiac team
immediately used defibrillator paddles
on Grace, gave her clot-buster medication,
called a cardiac ambulance, and sped her
to the Ralph Hull Regional Heart Center
in Corvallis. There, a cardiac team
inserted a stent in Grace’s narrowed
artery, gave her blood transfusions, and
nursed her back to health.
“I can’t even begin to tell you how my
life has changed because of the care I
received,” Grace said. “After my hospital
stay in Corvallis, the cardiac folks urged
me join the cardiac rehabilitation program
at Samaritan Pacific Communities
Hospital back home in Newport. I went
three days a week for three months. I
exercised there and received education
in nutrition, exercise, and the symptoms
and signs of heart trouble. I also talked
with others who had gone through
similar experiences. I know that
sharing with others kept me from going
into depression.”
Today, Grace is 20 pounds lighter
than she was in early March,
and she walks 30
minutes a day. She makes it a point to tell
other women to be aggressive in getting
good diagnoses and care if they have
chest pain.
“Some doctors assume that
premenopausal women’s symptoms
can’t be heart-related, and that’s not
true,” Grace said. “We women have to
take our chest pains seriously.
“My life has completely changed since
my heart attack,” Grace continued. “I
eat better, I walk, and I’ve set a new goal
for myself: I’m going to join my family
when they hike the hill at the back of the
Newport lighthouse. They’ve always had
to go ahead without me…but not
anymore!”
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