2 weeks after giving birth, teacher had a heart attack. 然后是心脏骤停.

奈雅·阿特金斯和特里斯坦·格里菲斯生完第一个孩子后，就开始习惯了生活. On leave from her job as a second grade teacher, Naiya was home with baby Joseph, 他们给他起名叫乔乔. Tristan worked late hours and took care of JoJo at night.

乔乔两周大的时候，奈雅抱着乔乔在床上站起来，差点晕倒. 37岁的她以为自己头晕是因为产后先兆子痫, 一些妇女生完孩子后出现的高血压状况.

Naiya took her blood pressure. It was high, but not drastically. She sat down to see if the feeling would pass. 它没有. Naiya felt hot, then cold. 她大声叫着正在帮忙照顾乔乔的母亲贝蒂·阿特金斯-卡特.

然后奈雅昏倒了.

Betty called 911, then Tristan. 他在纽约市一家养老院工作，正在回新泽西的路上. 特里斯坦听到这个消息后，急忙下了车，跑了最后五个街区回家.

When EMTs arrived, Naiya was conscious. They took her to the hospital where she'd given birth. Naiya had been born there, too.

"You had a heart attack," an ER doctor told her.

它是由所谓的自发性冠状动脉夹层或SCAD引起的. Unlike a traditional heart attack, where a clot blocks blood from reaching the heart muscle, a SCAD blocks blood flow because of a separation, 或撕裂, in the lining of the coronary artery wall.

她接受了修复损伤的手术，然后在重症监护室康复.

An hour later, Tristan held his wife's hand in bed.

"I'm going to try to sleep," Naiya said.

She squeezed his hand, then her body started to shake. 警报响起. 护士们跑进了房间. 特里斯坦退缩了. Betty was there too and she called out in a panicked voice, "Naiya!"

Naiya's heart had stopped beating. 是心脏骤停.

Nurses started 心肺复苏, then shocked Naiya with a defibrillator. Her heart started beating again.

“发生了什么事?" Naiya said, looking around the room. “为什么每个人都在这里??"

医生在她的胸部放置了一个气球泵，并给她静脉注射药物，以帮助她的心脏更有效地泵血. She did cardiac rehabilitation to regain her strength.

The medications she had to take prevented her from breastfeeding. She missed bonding with JoJo. She missed even seeing him.

"I'm a new mom," she kept telling her doctors. 她的请求起了作用，特里斯坦和贝蒂被允许在奈雅康复期间两次带乔乔.

两周后, 奈雅穿着一件除颤器背心回家，如果心脏再次停止跳动，她的心脏就会受到电击. Doctors considered implanting a defibrillator, but opted against it in hopes that her heart would heal.

Five months later, her heart still struggled to pump blood. Naiya got the defibrillator implanted in her chest. 一个月后, right at the start of a new school year, she felt better and decided to go back to work.

She set up her classroom and was excited to meet her new students. Just before school started, she had regular bloodwork done. On the third day of school, 当她的医生打电话来时，她正坐在教室里等着学生们从日常选修课中回来.

"Your organs are failing," he told her. "Come to the hospital immediately."

Naiya's heart was functioning at only 15% capacity. She needed a heart transplant.

在进行了额外的检查后，奈雅带着静脉注射药物回家，以保持心脏稳定. 在11月, her doctor gave her a choice: She could stay home with the IV, or come back to the hospital, which would likely put her higher up on the transplant list.

奈雅和家人一起度过了感恩节，然后回到了医院. 一想到错过乔乔的第一个圣诞节，她就哭了. 她想到了更大的图景，错过这一次意味着她将和他在一起更长的沙巴足球体育平台.

在奈雅的病房里，贝蒂挂了一个她用乔乔的照片做的花环. 医院的一位朋友兼护士送给奈雅一棵迷你圣诞树和一些彩灯. 圣诞节那天，她和一个打扮成圣诞怪杰的护士合影.

Every few days in December, Naiya's doctor came to see her.

“奈雅，这周我要给你找颗心脏，”他每次都这样说.

"All right," she would reply. “我会等着的."

Less than a week into the new year, her doctor called. "Naiya, I found you a heart." Tears flowed down her cheeks. She had the transplant the next day.

经过三周的物理治疗，心脏病发作将近一年后, Naiya went home to JoJo the day before his first birthday.

She and Tristan sang "Happy Birthday" and shared a cupcake. 自从回家后，奈雅就和她的孩子快乐地度过了每一天. 一天，她带他去商店一起做毛绒玩具.

她定期抽血检查以确保她的身体不会排斥她的新心脏. While the first five tests looked fine, 最近的一次表明她的身体可能开始排斥心脏. 她在纽瓦克贝斯以色列医疗中心的医生给了她更多的类固醇，试图防止这种情况发生.

"I'm still in the journey," Naiya said. "But I'm in good spirits. I have a different mindset now. I know not everything is going to go as planned. 但是我期待着回到工作和日常生活中去."

发自内心的故事 记录心脏病和中风幸存者、护理人员和倡导者的鼓舞人心的旅程.