Gratitude In The Midst Of Healing
- searcylivingads
- Jun 18
- 5 min read
By Jennifer Webb
Mallory had felt a bit “off” since Friday. It was probably nothing. She was probably just tired, but what started as a normal evening soon turned into a life-altering event.
As an associate professor of pharmacy at Harding, a cardiology pharmacist at Unity Health, and mom to three beautiful children, life was always good but busy. She and her husband, Shawn, had just celebrated their youngest daughter turning two, gone to the lake with friends, and attended church and Sunday school. It was Sunday night, and Shawn had gone to his weekly pickleball game.
Mallory went through her nightly routine of putting the kids to bed, and started her normal 30-minute workout. She hadn’t planned anything too strenuous but figured some light exercise would help her feel better.
A few minutes in, she started sweating profusely in her air-conditioned living room. Fifteen minutes after her light workout, she felt a sharp stabbing pain start under her sternum. She tried to ignore it as she continued to pick up around the house. The pain not only persisted but intensified to the point that it made her sick to her stomach. It started radiating from her left arm up to her jaw. There was no ignoring it.
As a cardiac pharmacist, she knew these symptoms - classic heart attack - and they were far too strong to ignore. It was 9:30 at night. She was at the house alone with three kids who were soundly tucked into bed.
She tried to call her husband, but the call failed. She tried again, but it failed again. Starting to panic, she tried to call him a third time, but the call still failed.
“Oh God, please let him pick up! Please let this call go through!” she prayed as she restarted her phone. The fourth time the call went through and he picked up. Shawn rushed out of his pickleball game as soon as she explained what was happening.
He took her to the ER while a neighbor came over to sit with the sleeping kids.
By the time they got to the ER, about 10:30 p.m., the pain had subsided to a dull ache. Even though she was a female under the age of 35 with no previous family history of heart disease, the team at Unity Health took it seriously and treated it as a heart attack.
The initial electrocardiogram didn’t show anything significant, but they held her for bloodwork and monitoring.
When the medical resident doctor came back in after the initial assessment, Mallory knew as soon as he walked in, with his eyes as wide as saucers, that he was about to confirm what she suspected. “You’re having a heart attack.”
Her bloodwork came back about 1 a.m. with very high levels of troponin, which indicated heart damage. She was admitted to the hospital at 3 a.m. under the care of cardiologist, Dr. Evans.
Since she knew she was in good hands, she convinced Shawn to go home, so he could be there when their girls woke up. Through the night her troponin levels continued to increase, and Dr. Evans decided to take her to the cardiac catheterization lab the next morning to see if she had a blockage in one of her arteries.
“As ironic as it was as a cardiology pharmacist to be having a heart attack, it was also very interesting to be a patient in the world in which I work every day. I have so much appreciation for the cath lab staff and Joy and Dr. Evans. They were fantastic and took great care of me.”
- Mallory Turner, Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD) survivor
During the cath, Dr. Evans found that Mallory had a dissection in one of her coronary vessels. A dissection happens when blood collects between the layers of the artery, which prevents blood from flowing to the heart muscle. This results in pain and damage to the heart muscle.
Most heart attacks are treated with a stent, but in Mallory’s case, Dr. Evans decided that hers would heal on its own with specific medications. As confirmed later by experts at Mayo Clinic, Dr. Evans made exactly the right call since stents with a spontaneous coronary artery dissection can actually lead to further artery damage.
After six hours of bed rest following her heart cath, Shawn brought their girls to visit her in the hospital. He had explained to them that “Mommy has a heart boo-boo.” The girls had a great time! For Mallory, seeing them was the highlight of her hospital stay. They pushed buttons, raised and lowered the bed, and ate most of her food. Having them, her husband, and her parents there made her feel better than words could express.
She stayed two nights in the hospital and came home on three medications. Two were antiplatelets, and the other was a beta blocker. She also had nitroglycerin, as needed for chest pain.
While she had felt an almost supernatural peace in the hospital, the thought of going home filled her with anxiety. As a type A person, Mallory was not one to sit still for long, but when she first got home, it was all she could do. For the first few weeks, she couldn’t even lift her two-year-old or her three-year-old. She continued to have heart pain and heart palpitations, likely from trying to jump back into work and life too quickly.
“I am so thankful for my husband who shouldered so much during this recovery time so that I could rest, my parents who are a blessing to us daily and helped out so much during this time, and to our church family who fed us for weeks.”
- Mallory Turner, Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD) survivor
Dr. Evans recommended that Mallory attend the Smart Heart cardiac rehabilitation program at Unity. Since her heart attack occurred after exercising, she hesitated to start back on an exercise program. Despite being active her whole life and being a college athlete, Mallory found that she was afraid to walk in her own neighborhood by herself or lift weights. The rehab was exactly the support she needed to step back into an active lifestyle.
“While the physical recovery was challenging, I would say the mental and emotional recovery was the most intense and also took longer. Having a condition with the word ‘spontaneous’ in the name is very scary for a type A individual like me, who likes to plan everything. I am so grateful for my healing, but that does not take away from the fact that it is the hardest thing I’ve had to walk through in my life so far.”
- Mallory Turner, Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD) survivor
Since SCAD is not common, Mallory looked into learning more about it. She found some support groups online and learned that Mayo Clinic had a SCAD specialty physician. She was able to set up an appointment and learned that Dr. Evans had treated her exactly as they would have at the Mayo Clinic. She walked away from the visit feeling reassured and armed with more knowledge and tools to help her live a healthy, full life, despite SCAD.
“Other things that have been helpful to me in my recovery, besides taking my medicines and listening to my doctors, have been my faith, therapy, cardiac rehab, support from friends and family, and processing the emotions that come with such a sudden shift in my health. They’ve all been present at some time or another - disbelief, grief, frustration, joy, sadness, happiness, anger, but mostly gratitude. Gratitude comes in waves, in the simple moments of life with my family and especially with my three girls - watching sunsets, watching it snow, seeing the excitement when they experience something new. This poignant gratitude often brings a tear to my eye, thinking, ‘I could have missed this. Thank you, God, for not letting me miss this.’”
-Mallory Turner, Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD) survivor
Read the full issue below.
