Here's How One Crucial Hour Saved a Rochester Hills Jogger's Life

It took only a few minutes on a sunny January afternoon for Kelly Remick's life to take a jog that nearly ended her life.

It took one hour – and a critical confluence of Good Samaritan and crucially fast medical care – to bring that life back.

Remick was jogging near her Rochester Hills home on Jan. 11 when she grew weak, started to feel pain and struggled to breathe. She was rushed to , where a team of doctors performed a series of life-saving tests and procedures.

They discovered Remick had suffered an aortic dissection, a rare and often fatal tear in the inner wall of her aorta. It was that hour – from the quick call of a passerby to the work of her medical team – that made her the exception.

Remick remembers that day well, and she looks back on what has happened since then with a multitude of emotions.

"It took me a couple days to really get my head around it," said Remick, a 44-year-old mom of two. "And then when I realized what had happened, and what had almost happened ..."

Her heart is full of gratitude.

Literally.

'I tried to will it away'

Remick remembers Jan. 11 as a beautiful day.

It was a Wednesday. She had been sick with what she assumed was a cold or flu over the weekend and took advantage of the winter sunshine to get out for a run. It was shortly after noon when she left her Clair Hill Drive home on foot.

Remick described herself as a "sort of" marathon runner. She has run the Brooksie Way Half-Marathon twice. She typically ran three to five miles in a loop around her neighborhood south of Walton and east of Adams. That was her intention that January day.

She made it around the block before she realized something wasn't right.

"I felt weak, all of a sudden," she said. "I started to walk. Then I knew I had to sit down. Before I knew it I was seeing black spots — I felt like I was going to pass out."

At first, Remick said, she tried to fight the feelings. She didn't panic. "I tried to will it all away," she said.

After a few minutes, she realized she couldn't stop the wave of unfamiliar feelings that were taking over.

"I remember it got really quiet. I was sitting on the curb. All of a sudden I saw a man walking. I waved him over. He asked me what was wrong, and that's when I asked him to call an ambulance."

The man reached into his pocket for his cell phone. After that, Remick remembers only pieces.

"I remember feeling like I couldn't breathe," she said. "I remember someone asking my name and I said it was Kelly. My back hurt, I kept telling everyone. I remember being in the ambulance and thinking to myself, 'Oh, wow, I've never been in an ambulance before.' "

Remick said through it all — despite the pain and the commotion — she felt calm, and she felt in control.

And then fate and doctors took over.

A life-saving hour

According to medical research, what was happening to Remick was rare. And the fact that she lived to tell her story? Well, that's the happy ending.

Remick was taken by ambulance by to Crittenton. Her arrival in the hospital's emergency room set in motion a series of tests and procedures that involved at least 25 doctors, nurses and other hospital personnel.

"It's never a single person that makes a difference, it's always the team," said Samer Kazziha, executive medical director for the hospital's cardiovascular services.

Kazziha and the hospital's award-winning Cath Lab team was alerted as soon as Remick arrived in the emergency room. To start, they diagnosed her with a large pericardial effusion, which meant she had a lot of fluid around her heart.

Doctors soon began a surgical procedure to remove the fluid, which was putting pressure on her heart. But during that surgery, they discovered something more: an aortic dissection. Remick's heart was literally bleeding from a tear in the inner wall of her aorta. According to the American Heart Association, aortic dissections are uncommon and highly lethal. They normally are seen in men, and in people ages 60 and over.

Doctors Alvise Bernabei and Frank Fazzalari performed a surgery to repair the tear.

Bernabei said a condition such as Remick's is "typically a terminal event."

"I believe Kelly Remick recovered due to a strong will and the coordinated medical and surgical efforts of Crittenton Hospital," Bernabei said.

An hour had passed since Remick was first admitted to Crittenton.

The recovery

Four days later, Remick awoke. She remembers being asked to squeeze her hand and raise her arm.

And then it was typical This-Mom-Just-Awoke-After-Four-Days thoughts.

"The first thing I wondered was whether my daughter's teacher knew that I was in the hospital," she said "I figured my daughter would be so worried and upset. And then I thought about work."

Remick works from home as an IT specialist — ironically for a cardiac monitoring service.

Her husband, Dan, and her children, 11-year-old Austin and 9-year-old Camryn, were more than grateful to have their wife and mom back.

"I felt awful for my family, for them to have been not knowing if I was going to make it," she said. "It made me sad."

After 13 days, Remick was released from the hospital. She said she feels stronger every day and that she will have several follow-up appointments in the coming weeks, but that her prognosis is good.

After her recovery, Remick's sister went door-to-door in the neighborhood where she had been running. She finally found the man who had called 911 that afternoon and told him that Remick was all right. The man was happy to hear the outcome and did not want any recognition.

Lesson learned

Remick ran without any identification. She runs with an old MP3 player because she said she's used to the buttons and can easily flip from FM radio to her playlists. 

In the emergency room, nurses ultimately used that MP3 player to help identify the patient they knew only as "Kelly." On it, they found some photos of her kids, which officers from the Oakland County Sheriff's Office took to the nearest elementary school to where Remick was found. School officials helped identify Remick and reach her husband.

Remick considers it a lesson that she will share with others: Run with identification. "It was my bad," she said.

She also considers it part of the series of events that helped save her on that January day.

"I'm so grateful," she said. "There's a reason for everything. I firmly believe that. More than anything, the community support has been overwhelming. Crittenton was wonderful; the staff there was amazing. Everyone has been so sweet and generous, and that almost dominates any other feelings I have right now."

February is Ameican Heart Month. Crittenton Hospital is hosting a third annual Cardiovascular Symposium from 7 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. The free symposium will address a wide variety of topics related to the pathophysiology and treatment of cardiovascular diseases. To register, visit crittenton.com/classes.