Health
Teen Warns Others After Doctors Ignored Symptom That Led To Her Collapsing In Class
After experiencing’mild chest pains’ and going into cardiac arrest while at school, a British kid is asking people to pay attention to their own bodies.
Evelyn Walker, a resident of Hertfordshire, UK, has maintained that when her life as she knew it ended in terror in February of this year, she was simply enjoying a “normal morning.”
She told how she got up, ate breakfast, and walked with a friend to school, arriving at around 8:30 a.m.
“I felt fine that morning. Everything was normal until I started getting chest pains,” she recalled.
The 17-year-old ‘began feeling nauseous’ and ‘collapsed’ suddenly.
“I don’t have any memories of the event. I completely blacked out. I just remember waking up in hospital a couple of days later,” she said.
Evelyn didn’t find out what had transpired until after the incident. Staff acted quickly to attempt CPR after she fainted, with one teacher snatching the school’s on-site defibrillator.
After staff notified the school’s medical officer, the officer attempted in vain to restart Evelyn’s heart by shocking her twice while she was asleep.
Before she was stabilised and taken to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge to be put in a three-day coma, Evelyn thinks her heart stopped for five full minutes.
Her mom, Jennifer, described the ordeal as the ‘worst moment’ of her life, saying, “I was in bed asleep having a lie in and heard my phone going then just saw the word ‘ambulance’ on my phone.”
“I just thought Evelyn had bumped her head or fallen over. Then the police were on my doorstep and I just thought she was dead. It was absolutely awful.”
Jennifer went to her daughter’s side and said that Evelyn was a “healthy, vibrant young girl” and that “nothing like this had ever happened before.”
Evelyn mentioned that doctors were not aware of any significant warning signs even before she was admitted to the hospital.
Due to’mild chest problems’, the 17-year-old had previously visited a doctor.
However, medics “just put it down to physical symptoms of anxiety”, and her pains “never got investigated”, she said.
After examinations suggested that the teen might have heart issues, Evelyn thinks she might have had an underlying cardiac condition.
Her cardiac arrest’s medical cause is still being looked at, though.
“We still don’t know if that [the chest pains] was linked,” Evelyn said. “I’m quite frustrated I was just told it was anxiety, just because I’m a young person. I’m sure if I was over 60 complaining of chest pain, they would’ve looked into it further.”
After her breakdown, Evelyn spent a month in the hospital before having an internal defibrillator installed to stop future occurrences of the same kind.
Evelyn is now encouraging people to pay attention to any symptoms they might encounter.
“My outlook on life has really changed,” she said. “I thought I was young and healthy and nothing like this would ever happen to me…”
“Don’t just assume doctors are right. You know your own body better than anyone else and if you think something is off then don’t be afraid to push and get it investigated. Heart problems can affect anyone.”
Jennifer wants to urge more people to receive CPR and AED (Automated External Defibrillator) training. She has started a Facebook page called ‘Young Hearts UK’ to help raise awareness of sudden cardiac arrest in young people.
“[Sudden cardiac arrest] is fairly rare for young people but not unheard of. In fact, 12 young people under 35 die each week in the UK from a SCA. That’s why we want people to know CPR and to know where their nearest defibrillator is,” the mom said.
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