GARNER, N.C. — For some people, receiving care for things other than COVID-19 has been difficult throughout the pandemic.

One North Carolina woman suffered a heart attack nearly seven months ago and said a device saved her life.

What You Need To Know

Anne Fowler suffered a heart attack in May and had no prior health conditions

She said an Impella heart pump saved her life

Impella technology pumped blood to her body when her heart would not

Anne Fowler, 66, said she was working in her garden on May 27 when she felt a change in her body.

“Well, it was a normal day. I had been at work and came home and was watering the flowers,” Fowler said.

This was her usual routine. In many ways she called it a peaceful break from the long hours she logged each day in the classroom.

“I think with just the solitude of being with something pretty and being with something you’ve helped grow and live,” she said.

The teacher said there were many days when she drove home from school excited to dig into her flowerbeds. It was a hobby she would have more time for when retirement began later in the spring.

But on this day, not long into watering the flowers, she started having jaw pain, followed by severe chest pain. 

"I knew then, that I was having a heart attack,” Fowler said. 

Her husband rushed her to the emergency room at WakeMed Hospital in Garner. She said she had no history of health problems.

“It was hard for me to believe,” Fowler said.

Symptoms of nausea, profuse sweating and vomiting were indications of something worse. 

“That’s just not the first thing you think of, ‘I'm having a heart attack’, when you’ve been healthy your whole life,” she said.

The medical staff transferred her to a special heart lab at the main WakeMed campus in Raleigh.

“It was a 100% blockage. Complete blockage,” she said. 

Her heart stopped pumping any blood to the body at all. Doctors described this as cardiogenic shock. That’s when the surgical team made a pivotal decision.

“This is what saved my life,”  Fowler said as she held the Impella heart pump, a life-saving device, for the first time.

The Impella heart pump functioned in place of the heart. 

To get the pump inside Fowler's body, a cardiologist performed a percutaneous procedure. This means the physician punctures the skin with a needle as a nonsurgical access point.

Next, a cardiologist begins cardiac catheterization by inserting a hollow tube into a leg artery, then snaking the catheter into the heart. Once in place, the pump restored blood pressure and blood flow to her body for three days.

“It let my heart rest and recover while it did the work,” she said. “I am just so appreciative. There’s a lot of people a lot smarter than me that can develop something like this, but it’s a very humbling experience.” 

Tending to her garden is secondary these days. When her interview was recorded in October, she couldn’t work in her garden because she was still healing.

“I think I am more important than that, than the garden,” she said. “I’ve been having to take care of myself and keep myself well.”

Therapy and time are helping her recovery. In a strange way, the weeds are a reminder of that day in May.

"So, some things have to go, and that’s what went,” she said.

She said simply standing in her backyard is an opportunity to reflect about being among the living and not digging herself into the grave.

“Next year, I can take care of my garden,” Fowler said.

Fowler said Heather Liles, a former student she taught in first grade, now works for Impella. 

She said Liles was sent by the company to check on her during her two-week stay in the hospital. Fowler is still in cardiac therapy twice a week one hour a day through mid-December.