Myocardial bridge survivor Stacy Beckly. (Photo courtesy of Stacy Beckly) As an aspiring nurse working in an emergency room, Stacy Beckly decided to get some advice about pain she was having on the left side of her chest. Although tests showed no problems, something felt strange. Doctors said it could be anxiety. In college, the…
Cardiac arrest survivor Mark Wangrin. (Photo courtesy of Mark Wangrin) Mark Wangrin and his wife, Barbara, put on their athletic gear and drove to their Austin, Texas, fitness center for an early morning Sunday workout. Mark hopped on treadmill No. 1. Barbara climbed onto a nearby rower. Then she switched to weights. While running, Mark…
Cardiac arrest survivor Mike Button. (Photo courtesy of Mike Button) One day last July, Mike Button settled into his home office, ready to start catching up on the backlog of things that had accumulated over his latest prolonged stretch away from work. In April, his mom had died following a prolonged illness. Around the same…
Aortic stenosis survivor Erin Kidwell (left) and her son, Caleb. (Photo courtesy of the Kidwell family) Erin Kidwell had worked all day and needed a break. Exercise is her favorite release, so she did a few squats and jumping jacks, then headed out for a run. Instead of being home in Dallas, she was visiting…
Dr. Steven Lome (left) with Greg Gonzales (center) and Michael Heilemann. (Photo courtesy of Michael Heilemann) Running the Monterey Bay Half Marathon, Dr. Steven Lome kept his eyes locked on two runners ahead of him. They were his oldest kids, 16-year-old Jadyn and 14-year-old Ian. Both are on their high school’s cross-country team and, Lome…
King McClure played for the Baylor Bears in the NCAA Tournament in March 2019 in Salt Lake City. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images Sport via Getty Images) When shooting guard King McClure showed up at Baylor University in 2015, he was one of the top recruits in the country. An NBA career seemed likely. But before he…
Megan Washington was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome at age 21. (Photo courtesy of Megan Washington) Megan Washington finished running a muggy mile outside the Orlando, Florida, warehouse where she attended professional wrestling school, and found herself abnormally out of breath and exhausted. When the group went to do squats and jumping jacks, Megan sat on…
Stroke survivor Barbara Bartels. (Photo courtesy of Andrea Borsuk) Barbara Bartels and a friend were catching up over coffee on a Sunday morning in August. They’d met up at a café not far from Bartels’ home in Santa Cruz, California. As an artist and a bit of a self-professed hermit, Bartels didn’t socialize much beyond…
Cardiac arrest survivor and lacrosse player Peter Laake. (Photo courtesy of Gwin Photography) On April 16, 2021, Peter Laake was a starting freshman defender for his prep school’s varsity lacrosse team. He’d had a good year, and now his team was playing a key rival on home turf in Towson, Maryland, a Baltimore suburb. The…
Cardiac arrest survivor Sarah Katzenmaier in the zombie costume she wore the day she collapsed in a parade during her city’s annual Halloween “Thriller” event. (Photo courtesy of Sarah Katzenmaier) A week before Halloween 2021 and five days before her 68th birthday, Sarah Katzenmaier slipped into a royal blue bridesmaid dress and carefully applied her…