Kennedy Grice poses with members of the Tuscaloosa Fire Rescue unit whom she credits for saving her life , along with two passersby , on Jan . 23 , 2023 , after her heart stopped beating due to a sudden cardiac arrest while she was walking at Tuscaloosa RiverWalk . Photo submitted by Kennedy Grice .
take pressure off the person ’ s brain and improves blood flow to the brain and heart while rescuers work to resuscitate the patient .
Grice said the technology definitely made a difference “ because my odds were not good . I should have passed away and I shouldn ’ t have had the brain activity that I do being without oxygen for that long ,” she said .
Grice was transported to DCH Regional Medical Center , where her sister , Kary Grice , also a student at the University of Alabama , and her friends waited for her parents , Tim and Laura Grice , to arrive from Meridian .
She was placed in a medically induced coma and put on a ventilator while tests were run to determine the cause of her cardiac arrest . A few days later , she was transferred to nearby UAB Hospital in Birmingham .
“ They were running all of these tests to see what happened ,” said Grice , who said it was Saturday before she was conscious and was really able to communicate with hospital staff and her family with coherent thoughts .
Doctors finally diagnosed her with hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy , a heart condition that causes the muscular wall , or septum , between the left and right
Kennedy Grice stays busy at college as a member of the Baptist Campus Ministries , the Honors College and the Student Advocates for Foster Families . Photo submitted by Kennedy Grice . ventricles of the heart to thicken and block or reduce blood flow from the heart into the body , according to the American Heart Association . It is the most common genetic heart condition and can affect people of all ages , often times going undiagnosed .
Grice said doctors told her that her septum was grossly enlarged . So they performed a septal myectomy , an open-heart procedure in which they removed a portion of the thickened tissue in Grice ’ s heart to improve blood flow through the heart .
She and her parents also elected for her to get an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator , a small battery-powered device that connects to her heart and is used to detect and stop irregular heartbeats , according to the Mayo Clinic website . The device continuously checks the heartbeat and delivers an electric shock if needed . She also takes medicine daily to help keep her septum from growing thick again .
“ It is different than a pacemaker . A pacemaker is constantly working to keep the heart on pace . My ICD is just sitting in me and if I were to go into cardiac arrest again , then it would kick in and shock me back ,” Grice said .
Altogether , she spent two weeks in the hospital and two
8 • MERIDIAN LIFE