Kristin Ryan

Advocate for Go Red for Women

a nurse practitioner with Essentia Heath.

Kristin and her husband Bob and their four grown children Hallie, Kaitlin, Trisha, and Connor were spending Thanksgiving at their Naples condo and had decided to run in a 5k family fun run Turkey Trot. Since the family runs at different speeds, Kristin was running by herself, behind the rest of the family. About six blocks from the finish line, she went into cardiac arrest.

The type of event she suffered typically has only an 8 percent survival rate, but as Kristin explains, “I was so very lucky that I fell into the arms of a police officer and that running right behind me were two RNs (who did not know each other) who within 30 seconds were administering CPR to me. That saved my life and saved my brain function.”

An ambulance and medical personnel at the race were also dispatched to her immediately and got her heart rhythm back with a defibrillator while she was still on the street. Her family was expecting her at the finish line and had even heard the ambulance but didn’t know what had happened to her. Thankfully, Kristin had written emergency contact cell phone numbers on all the family’s running bibs, so the race director was able to call her family and direct them to the hospital.

They found at the hospital that she had what is referred to as the “widow maker” (in this case “widower maker”) event with a 90 percent blockage of the main left coronary artery. “At first they thought that there was something wrong with my brain so they held off doing the bypass surgery for a few days,” she explains.

It turned out there was no brain involvement, so Kristin had successful coronary artery bypass surgery and was able to leave the hospital complication free after seven days. After a couple weeks of recovery, she was able to celebrate Christmas with her family back in Minnesota.

She says, “On December 22, I was able to leave the hospital. Needless to say it was a very special Christmas for my family and me. I am so lucky to have had my family be so supportive and caring during all of this, and there were prayer chains all over the U.S. and even outside of the country.”

New Life’s Focus

As Kristin explains she did not ever think of herself as a person who would have heart problems. “I had been feeling some shortness of breath for a while before the heart attack, but I did not attribute it to being anything wrong with my heart. I was in good shape, not overweight.”

As a nurse practitioner in cardiology at Essentia, she had spent so much of her

Kristin was asked to be the “passion” speaker for the 2014 Northland Go Red for Women event. “I am grateful to be here to share my story. The Go Red event is so important. I was asked to be the chair of the 2016 luncheon. My hope is to increase awareness for women and to increase our fundraising dollars.”

As she spends much of her time now working with the American Heart Association, life has come full circle for Kristin. “I ran the same race in Naples at Thanksgiving this year. It was an emotional journey for me with my family running alongside me. I really felt a sense of completion on my healing journey,” she says. D time working with people with heart issues. So the irony of this happening to her was hard to escape.

“This did change my outlook on life,” she notes. “I am following a heart healthy diet; I have more motivation. The way I see it, I have no choice. I had a mental check on myself to take this all very seriously.”

She has become an advocate for women’s heart health. “Women of all shapes and sizes and genetic backgrounds can have heart attacks. It’s important for women to get all the risk factors they can in control,” she explains.

For more information on the American Heart Association and the risks and prevention tips, visit the national website at www.heart.org/mn or the Minnesota Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ ahaminnesota

For more information on this year’s area Go Red luncheon on Wednesday, March 2, visit their website at www.northlandgoredforwomen.org or the national Go Red site at www.goredforwomen.org the treatment allow for optimal absorption of topical products and Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP). When used for skin rejuvenation, PRP releases growth factors into the skin to expedite the body’s own repair process and stimulate new collagen and elastin.

by Kimberly E. Brzezinski

Access to landlocked property continues to be a topic addressed by many lawyers on a near daily basis. Clients often ask me, “Isn’t it true that property cannot be landlocked in Minnesota?”

To some extent, this is a true statement, although with certain qualifications. When clients raise this question, they are generally referring to a landowner’s right to pursue a cartway to provide legal access to his or her real property. This right is based upon the legislature’s determination that public policy favors allowing landowners legal access to their real property.

A cartway is a statutory tool, governed by Minnesota Statute Sections 164.07 and 164.08, that provides legal