35-Year-Old Cardiac Arrest Survivor Shares Story at “Her Story at 11:11”

All of the attendance fees went directly to the American Heart Association

FARGO–“Her Story at 11:11” gives one woman a month the chance to tell her own unique story.

“When I think about getting out and talking about this, CPR, it saved my life,” Cardiac arrest survivor Kadie Stoltz said.

Kadie Stoltz’s story is a heroic one.

She’s a mother, wife, and now a survivor.

“The Sunday after Thanksgiving, I was home with my daughter and my twin boys,” Stoltz said. “It was just us. I had heartburn that day. I just thought maybe I was rundown or coming down with something. I was sitting on the couch with my daughter and I stood up and I just collapsed.”

Kadie is just 35–years–old and survived a sudden cardiac arrest in November.

“I’ve seen the devastating effects that it has on families because I’m there when we respond or after that but it really hit home when it happened to Kadie,” F-M Ambulance paramedic and family member Kristi Engelstad said.

Her eight–year–old daughter, Sloan, immediately found help by running to a neighbor’s house barefoot in the snow.

Their neighbor, Mark, performed CPR, which ultimately saved her life.

“I just go back to that day, thinking what the outcome could have been,” Stoltz said. “It could’ve been so different if Sloan hadn’t been right there, if she hadn’t reacted, if Mark hadn’t been home, how much longer I could’ve lied there before getting CPR and starting the process of saving my life.”

According to F–M Ambulance, only 10% of people survive a cardiac arrest.

Kadie beat the odds and woke up four days later in the hospital.

“As much as I was praying and hoping that she was going to get better, the chances were that she wasn’t going to so it’s really a miracle that she’s here today and doing great,” Engelstad said.

F–M Ambulance stressed the importance of knowing how to do CPR by giving each person a kit to take home.

“Since it hit so close to home, it really makes a difference that everybody should know it because it could literally happen to anybody,” Engelstad said.

And because of CPR, Kadie gets to celebrate another birthday this week.

All of the attendance fees went directly to the American Heart Association.

You can hear next month’s story on April 11th.