65-year-old Cindy Miessen was in great health, as far as she was concerned. “A little high blood pressure, a little overweight,” she will admit, but otherwise she had no health issues. Yet two years ago, Cindy was watching TV when the hiccups started. She tried all the tricks to stop them, yet nothing worked.  She hesitated to wake up her husband, Jerry. “Then for some odd reason, I don’t remember getting out of the chair or going through my kitchen, but I was at the end of the bed tapping his leg. He jumped yelling ‘what!’, and I said I couldn’t breathe.”  Jerry asked if he should call an ambulance or drive 30 minutes to the nearest hospital.  Cindy asked him to call 911.   “I heard him say our street address and that was the last thing I remembered for three days.”

Cindy and Jerry live in the country, eight miles from any town.  It takes a little while for first responders to come.  Luckily there was a deputy two miles down the road, as well as a local first responder who heard the dispatch call and immediately responded.  The local first responders and the Ambulance arrived right after. The Ambulance service team tried to stabilize Cindy and prepared her for transport.  “I was fortunate to have thenumber of people who arrived so quickly; there was an entourage of people who came to save me.”

Cindy went in the ambulance, and it took off to the hospital.  Jerry quickly gathered their things and began driving to the hospital when he found the same ambulance stopped on the road, accompanied by deputies. They were trying to intubate Cindy but weren’t successful. Once she arrived at the emergency room, she was in cardiogenic shock and full-blown cardiac arrest, and medical personnel performed CPR. When Cindy’s family arrived at the emergency room, a nurse led them to another room where they meta Chaplin.  As the family sat and waited, the ER physician painted a very doom and gloom picture. “Jerry said our son was in Colorado hunting, and asked ‘should he come home?’ The physician recommended he come as quickly as possible.” Once Cindy was revived, her physician implanted the Impella heart pump to allow her heart to rest. After three days of support,Cindy’s heart function began to improve, and Impella was weaned and removed.

Cindy was in the hospital a total of 10 days.  It was after she was assessed by the Occupational and Physical therapist she could go home with in-home therapy appointments.  The first therapy appointment was also her last appointment.  The therapists were amazed, shocked to see Cindy doing normal things with no assistance. They mentioned that the person described in their records is not the person they were seeingi n person. “I was their miracle of the day!”

It was decided that Cindy would have an open-heart triple bypass surgery due to severe CAD and the physician wanted her heart to strengthen before she had CABG. Today, Cindy is feeling great and believes if she hadn’t experienced her heart event, shewould not be as strong as she is today.  After her heart event, Cindy has been on extreme hikes, ATV rides and has traveled across the United States and abroad with family and friends.  Cindy wants women to know that being strong and being ignorant are two different things.  “Don’t be afraid to speak up and ask for help, even when you feel like you are imposing on someone else.  Hiccups aren’t always just the hiccups.”