Karen Etheridge, Brandon, MS – 40 at the time of the incident (September 29, 1995)
Karen Etheridge wasn’t having much luck in the Ameristar Casino in Vicksburg, Mississippi on Sept. 29, 1995. So, deciding to cut her losses and go home, she sat down while husband John went to cash in what was left of their chips.
That action came horrifyingly close to becoming a metaphor as Karen’s luck turned even worse in the next few minutes.
“I jumped up,” she said, relying on second-hand accounts to relate the incidents of which she herself has no memory, “I grabbed my chest and fell down.”
Fortunately, there was an automated external defibrillator (AED) on the premises.
“I was laid out on the floor,” Karen said, not relishing the thought. But after two shocks, her heart—whose rhythm had gone haywire—was stabilized enough to move her to a Vicksburg hospital, where several more shocks were necessary to keep her stabile. She was later moved to St. Dominic’s Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, which was closer to her home in Brandon.
But the incident was not without warning. Karen had been seeing doctors for months before her cardiac arrest. She had been experiencing chronic pain from the neck up. “They decided my problem was of no known origin,” she says.
After the cardiac arrest, the probable “origin” became known. Four of Karen’s
heart arteries were blocked and, a few days after the arrest, she had quadruple
bypass surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Medical Center, where they also implanted an internal defibrillator.
After she recuperated from the surgeries, Karen was thrilled to have a chance to
meet the paramedic who came to her rescue on that day when losing a few bucks at the slots and the tables turned out to be the least of her worries.
Now, still limited in some activity, but glad to be alive, Karen has a positive
outlook. “I can truly say that I am happier than I ever was, because I could be gone now.”