NC State Representative Survives SCA
Raleigh, NC–State Rep. Becky Carney went into cardiac arrest and collapsed in her office Thursday while talking on the phone, but she was conscious when emergency workers took her from the building on a stretcher, a fellow lawmaker said.
Police and emergency personnel rushed to Carney’s first-floor office at the Legislative Building in Raleigh around 4 p.m.
Rep. Bob England, a doctor, said Carney was “totally unconscious” and had no pulse when he arrived. She was revived after England and a General Assembly police officer started CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and the building’s defibrillator was used on her heart, he said.
She was taken to Wake Med hospital in Raleigh, where she was in stable condition Thursday night, said Bill Holmes, a spokesman for House Speaker Joe Hackney. Carney had a heart arrhythmia, Holmes said, which can be a cause of cardiac arrest.
Her eyes were open as emergency workers took her from her office. Legislative assistants, lobbyists and fellow House members watched as she was wheeled from the building and wiped away tears after she was taken away.
Carney, 64, is a four-term Democratic House member who previously served as a Mecklenburg County commissioner. She had been on the phone with Rep. Verla Insko of Orange County when she collapsed.
The defibrillator, which provides an electric current to stop heart arrhythmia, was installed at the Legislative Building several years ago.
“It’s a wonderful thing about having it here,” said England, D-Rutherford.
–The Fayetteville (NC) Observer