Heart Attack Surprises Active, 42-Year-Old Mom

Jill & Tom Hayden

It was a typical Tuesday. Jill Hayden, 42, picked up her kids and played six games of sand volleyball that evening. Later, as she tucked them in, they excitedly discussed the puppy that they were planning to bring home the next day.

However, as Jill settled into bed, something didn’t feel right. She woke her husband, Tom, and told him she thought she was having a heart attack.

“I had the classic heart attack systems for a woman: My left arm hurt, my back hurt, my jaw hurt and chest pain,” Jill said.

At first, Tom thought she had just pulled a muscle at volleyball. But, in addition to her other symptoms, Jill was also pale and sweating. Then, as Tom went to get the kids, Jill vomited.

Tom drove the family to the Mercy ER near their home in Hiawatha. The first freestanding ER in the state, Mercy’s Hiawatha ER location opened in 2020 to make emergency care more accessible. A third extension of the Mercy Emergency Department will open in December 2024 at 999 35^th St. in Marion next to MercyCare Marion.

“I can remember the drive there and walking into the ER, them asking if I needed a wheelchair and I told them no,” Jill explained. “That’s the last thing I remember until I came around Thursday afternoon.”

Jill collapsed in the lobby of the Hiawatha ER and Mercy staff performed CPR on her for three minutes. Had she arrived just a few minutes later, she might not have made it.

“Dr. Monhollon, the ER doctor at Mercy Hiawatha, and his team saved my life,” Jill said. “I can never repay him for it, but he and his team did an amazing job.”

Jill had experienced a massive heart attack. After the emergency team in Hiawatha stabilized her, she was transported by ambulance to Mercy Medical Center in downtown Cedar Rapids and was taken straight to the catheterization laboratory (cath lab). There, Mercy Cardiologist Ryan Hollenbeck, MD, FACC, FSCAI, inserted the first stent into Jill’s heart early Wednesday morning. She was then moved to the Intensive Care Center, where she had breathing and feeding tubes, in addition to a variety of medications to help her recoup.

By Thursday afternoon, Jill had received a blood transfusion and began weaning off of the medications; her breathing and feeding tubes were removed; and she started a liquid diet. She even walked around the ICU and, when it was time to transfer to a room in Mercy’s Cardiac-Stroke Center, she even walked by herself (with permission and supervision from her care team).

Then, on Friday, Dr. Hollenbeck inserted a second stent. Jill was released the next day.

“Jill knew something was wrong, and she did the right thing by not ignoring her symptoms and coming to the ER as soon as possible,” Dr. Hollenbeck said. “Heart attacks are dangerous and every minute matters. When patients get to us quickly, our team can fix the blockage with stents and minimize damage to the heart. I am extremely pleased by how well she is doing.”

“It was an amazing recovery,” Jill said. “Everything was fantastic. After my second stent on Friday, the personal care attendant came in and braided my hair twice. I remember the second time she came in. It made me feel normal. I LOVE Mercy. Mercy is our hospital.

“You don’t realize how terrible you feel until you feel good again,” she shared. “I just chalked it up to having two young kids, so between swimming and baseball and softball, I was on the go. I was tired, but I have an 11- and a 5-year-old. Even the volleyball team said I was the same. I felt normal [that day].”

Notably, Jill has a family history of heart disease: Her father had a heart attack when he was in his 50s and all of her grandparents on both sides of her family had heart conditions.

Jill with her children
nine days before her
heart attack.

“If you have a family history of it, don’t think it’s not going to happen to you,” she advised. “I’m active and in fairly good health. Get checked out. This has made my husband, my sister, and our friends get checked out, and now my kids are going because of family history on both my side and their father’s side.”

Just a few weeks later, Jill reported feeling a lot better.

“I feel like myself again,” she said. “I feel like I have more energy and I’m not as tired as I was prior. I started cardiac rehabilitation and I’m still swimming with my kids. I go on walks at home as normal at least a mile every night with my kids.”

She’s also grateful for those who cared for her: “Mercy, by far, is amazing. The doctors, the nurses, everyone from ICU to ER to the cardiologist, everybody was amazing.”

Getting Screened for Coronary Heart Disease

If you have risk factors for coronary heart disease (such as a family history, or if you smoke, have high blood pressure or other indicators), talk to your healthcare provider about whether a Mercy Heart Scan would be beneficial for you. Also known as a CT Calcium scoring test, this quick, non-invasive test predicts your risk for coronary heart disease. It also detects calcium in the arteries leading to the heart, which is an indication that narrowing of the arteries has begun.