TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Ten years ago, Sydney Snipes was recovering in the hospital just two days after giving birth when she began experiencing life-threatening symptoms.
“My heart rate touched 298, my blood pressure was through the roof, I had major edema, I was swollen in all my extremities, my heart was failing,” Snipes said.
Doctors told Snipes she was having a heart attack at just 19 years old. Snipes said all she could think about was her newborn daughter.
“I had a two-day-old, just innocent and deserved to have her mom,” she said. “Your life really flashes before your eyes.”
Snipes said she still lives with a partial heart block and a leaking heart valve and is expected to need a pacemaker.
“It’s still a struggle. A lot of women recover and go back to just about normal. Sadly, for some of us, that’s not the case,” she said.
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Snipes will be sharing her story as one of the featured speakers at Saturday’s Big Bend Heart Walk in Tallahassee, hosted by The American Heart Association.
Organizer Leslie Mille said more than 300,000 people suffer cardiac arrest outside hospitals each year, and 90% do not survive. She said immediate CPR from someone nearby can double or even triple survival chances.
“The reason we do the Big Bend Heart Walk is to create a community of lifesavers,” Mille said.
Mille said money raised from the event supports CPR training, public health education and life-saving research.
The Big Bend Heart Walk will take place Saturday, May 16, at 8 a.m. at Cascades Park.
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