RAVENNA — October is Sudden Heart Awareness Month. According to the American Red Cross, 70 percent of all cardiac arrests occur at home, which is why CPR and AED training is important. You could save a family member or friend.

“We have a saying in cardiology that time is muscle,” said Dr. Myttle Mayuga, chief attending physician and interventional cardiologist at University Hospitals Portage Medical Center. “If someone is having either a heart attack or cardiac arrest, time is of the essence.”

Heart attack and sudden cardiac arrest are two different medical emergencies. “A heart attack occurs when blood flow to the heart is blocked. A cardiac arrest occurs when the heart suddenly stops beating,” according to the American Heart Association.

“Heart attacks can sometimes cause cardiac arrest, but not all cardiac arrests are caused by heart attacks,” Mayuga said. “These days, we’re seeing heart attacks and even cardiac arrest happening in younger and younger people.”

Korey Loughry was 51 when he suffered a cardiac arrest in November 2022.

He was on his way home from work when he felt a pain that he thought was indigestion.

“It wasn’t until I got home and on the way home that I started to wonder if it could be a heart attack,” he said. “I texted my family in our family chat group, the ‘I love you’ emoji, thinking this might be the last communication I might have with my family.”

When I asked him what was going through his mind at that moment, knowing that this could be his last moment, Loughry said he relied on his faith.

“As a Christian, I’m comfortable with the idea that I’m going to die and it’s not going to be the end,” he said. “I have this hope and yet at the same time there’s a real tension, I still want to see my family more.”

After he got home, Loughry checked his blood pressure and looked up his symptoms on the Internet. He realized he was having a heart attack.

“The chest pain was definitely raging at this point,” he said.

He called 911, and emergency crews took him to the hospital.

“Halfway through I remember looking out the back window and seeing where I was and then I drove off, I came back with this very strange feeling of euphoria.”

Loughry went into cardiac arrest in the ambulance and then again when he was taken through the emergency room doors.

“The next memories I had were of this flurry of activity of men and women trying to attach me to things, communicating things to me, leading me to what I would later learn was called the Catheterization Lab,” he said.

While in that lab to clear the blockage, he would go into cardiac arrest two more times. Mayuga led the UH Harrington Heart and Vascular Institute Portage Medical Center team working to save Loughry. She thought they would lose him.

“To know that we’ve made a difference not just in one person’s life, but now that he’s such a big advocate for heart health and in the community, I think he’s going to touch the lives of many more people to come,” she said.

Statistics show that 90% of people who suffer cardiac arrest do not survive.

“The probability of survival without external intervention and immediate external intervention, as I understand it, is death; it is sometimes referred to as clinical death to experience cardiac arrest,” Loughry said. “I’m definitely here because of them, and I definitely see the Lord’s provision in all of this.”

Now 53, he has written a book about his experience titled“I was arrested.” It’s in the hospital bookstore and on Amazon. He is grateful for everyone who helped save his life that day.

The husband and father of two grown children has lost 40 pounds, is eating healthier and exercising more, and also works at the heart institute as a practice manager.

“This involves serving and supporting the team that supports the cardiologists at UH Portage,” he said.

“The biggest message I would like to give to most people is to take those symptoms you feel seriously, don’t ignore them, don’t excuse them, but take them seriously.”