Cardiac Arrest Survivor

Chad Coburn is alive today thanks to a team of people who acted fast, knew just what to do, had the right equipment and sent him to the area’s heart hospital just in the nick of time.

The 47-year-old Victor man recalls the day he nearly died in 2021. He had been working a lot and took off early to remove some trees at his home.

“My wife, Crystal, and son, Cael, came out and helped me,” recalled Chad. “We finished up and headed inside. It was around that time I started to have a little bit of pain in both elbows. I’ve had rheumatoid arthritis and I thought maybe the tree work was causing the pain. I took some Tylenol but it didn’t seem to help. It kept getting worse, and it didn’t feel like arthritis. I told Crystal we needed to go to the hospital.”

The family started to get ready to go when suddenly the pain disappeared. Chad called his sister, who is a nurse, and told her what happened. They decided if the pain came back, he should go to the hospital and get it checked out.

“At that point we headed into town to get something to cook for dinner,” shared Chad. “We did that and returned home when the pain started in my elbows again, and it was getting worse. It was a little more rapid and moved into my forearms and wrists. We decided to go to the hospital in Marengo. The last thing I remember was bracing myself on the two countertops in our kitchen to rest myself for a moment.”

It was then that Chad fell straight back like a board and hit the floor. Crystal called 911 and handed the phone to Cael who stayed on with the 911 operator as his mom started cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

“She did this for about eight minutes and it just so happened that Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Tiedt from Iowa County was patrolling nearby,” said Chad. “Our home is actually in Poweshiek County but close to the Iowa County line. The deputy saw what was happening and went back to his vehicle to grab an automated external defibrillator (AED). They used it to shock my heart, which didn’t start right away. Meanwhile, Sheriff’s Deputy Jono Cheney from Poweshiek County arrived and took over chest compressions from Crystal until I became responsive a few minutes later.”

The Victor Quick Responders arrived a short time later, as did the East Poweshiek Ambulance. Chad was rushed to Compass Memorial Healthcare in Marengo. The team at Compass called St. Luke’s LifeGuard Air Ambulance to transport Chad to St. Luke’s, Cedar Rapids’ heart hospital.

“Chad had a full blown, cardiac arrest,” shared Subhi Halawa, MD, UnityPoint Health – St. Luke’s Cardiology. “We call it ventricular fibrillation, which is essentially chaotic electrical activity from the ventricle. Instead of a normal heart beat it prevents the heart from pumping blood, causing cardiac arrest.”

“In Chad’s case cardiac arrest was caused by a heart blockage,” explained Dr. Halawa. “This is typically caused by soft plaque, which is a cholesterol build up inside the blood vessel wall. If Chad hadn’t received treatment by this team of individuals when he did, he would not be here. He’s extremely lucky.”

“I’ve always lived my life with no regrets, doing everything I’ve ever wanted to do, treating people with kindness and this solidifies how I want to continue to live,” shared Chad. “It’s difficult to know how to thank everyone. I have thanked them all profusely. They all helped me continue to live my life and to hopefully grow older with Crystal, to be a father to Cael and watch him grow to be a man but it’s tough to express that level of gratitude.”

Chad hopes his story and his ‘happy ending’ spur others to learn CPR. He and Crystal were trained in CPR through work –never thinking it would be a skill they would need.

“I want people to know what a huge difference CPR made for me,” explained Chad. “I hope people read my story and learn CPR because it and the AED are what ultimately kept me alive in time to get to St. Luke’s where doctors were able to open my heart blockage. CPR is a lifesaver.”

When you have a medical emergency every minute counts, especially when it comes to chest pain and other heart attack symptoms. St. Luke’s beats the national average when it comes to fast heart attack care. As an Accredited Chest Pain Center, Eastern Iowans can trust St. Luke’s highly skilled team of emergency and heart physicians to assess, diagnose and treat heart attack symptoms with a high level of expertise.

Call St. Luke’s Heart Care Clinic in Cedar Rapids at (319) 364-7101 to connect with a heart care provider today, or search for a provider >>> https://bit.ly/3WH1pgV.

St. Luke’s Hospital, through its Heart Saver Program, gave away 56 automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and 96 Stop the Bleed first aid kits to area first responders, ambulance crews and nonprofit organizations in Benton, Jones and Linn counties in February.

The program was supported by St. Luke’s Foundation. It was an effort to place AEDs and trauma first aid kits into the community, to save lives through early intervention of cardiac arrest and traumatic injuries.

St. Luke’s is Cedar Rapids’ Heart Hospital. The first open heart surgery was performed at St. Luke’s in 1978. The Heart Saver Program aims to honor St. Luke’s Heart Care Team’s commitment to saving lives and raising awareness around matters of the heart.

To learn more about the program, visit unitypoint.org/HeartSaverProgram.