First in a series

Shannon Palazzo never thought of herself as a victim, nor could she have imagined herself being in an abusive relationship.

But after her 10-year marriage broke up, her self-esteem took a beating and she found herself jumping into another relationship. She ignored the warning signs, allowing the good things to outweigh the bad, but after awhile it was clear, the relationship was not healthy.

It took her five years to extricate herself. But even after she’d left, the harassment continued.

Add to that she was still dealing with the loss of two beloved family members, working full time and raising two children on her own, and it was no wonder she was suffering from anxiety. And it just kept getting worse.

On May 17, 2013, Palazzo recalls feeling extremely anxious, and by noon, she felt as if she were having a panic attack.

She stepped into the ladies room at work, collapsed, and technically, died.

Palazzo, who was only 38 at the time, had suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. Her heart had stopped beating.

Fortunately, her friend and co-worker, Erin, had heard Palazzo say “Someone call 911,” before she hit the floor. While another co-worker began CPR, Erin ran across the street to Penn Forest Volunteer Fire Company No. 1, yelling for help. No one is usually at the fire company midday, but on this particular day, a volunteer firefighters happened to be there. He grabbed the automated external defibrillator and rushed across the street.

Palazzo was not breathing, and she had no pulse. It took at least three minutes before they were able to get her heart to start beating again, although she did not regain consciousness. The rescuers worked on her for 15 minutes until paramedics arrived and she was flown to Lehigh Valley Hospital.

The average survival rate for sudden cardiac arrest is 10.6 percent. Survival with good neurologic function is 8.3 percent. Because the extent of possible damage to her brain was unknown, Palazzo was kept in a medically induced coma for several days while the use of a device known as Arctic Sun was employed. The Arctic Sun lowers and manages a patient’s body temperature, inducing a hypothermic state, which has been determined to reduce the risk of brain damage after a period of loss of blood flow to the brain.

When Palazzo first woke up and realized she was intubated, she panicked and tore it out, causing a significant amount of damage and necessitating a tracheotomy. She was initially told the trach would probably be permanent. On subsequent visits, the doctor said removal wasn’t looking good.

Despite everything she’d been through, including the installation of a defibrillator in her chest to regulate her heart, the tracheotomy bothered her the most.

“I was very angry. This was life-altering, but I prayed really hard.”

Two months after her SCA, she beat the odds, and the trach was removed.

In the meantime, she had to learn to talk, eat, walk and even type so that she could go back to work.

To determine what had caused the cardiac arrest, Palazzo was tested for Long QT syndrome, which is a genetic disorder of the heart’s electrical system and can cause sudden, uncontrollable and rapid heartbeats. Although she tested with a 25 percent possibility for Long QT, there has never been any definitive answer for what happened. She has no other signs of heart disease.

In the meantime, Palazzo is living her life to the fullest.

In fact, just above the scar from the surgery to install the defibrillator is a tattoo of one of Palazzo’s normal EKGs, followed by these words:

Just live ...