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.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy 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,\u201d Snipes said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a two-day-old, just innocent and deserved to have her mom,\u201d she said. \u201cYour life really flashes before your eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Snipes said she still lives with a partial heart block and a leaking heart valve and is expected to need a pacemaker.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s still a struggle. A lot of women recover and go back to just about normal. Sadly, for some of us, that\u2019s not the case,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
More Tallahassee News<\/p>\n
Snipes will be sharing her story as one of the featured speakers at Saturday\u2019s Big Bend Heart Walk in Tallahassee, hosted by The American Heart Association. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason we do the Big Bend Heart Walk is to create a community of lifesavers,\u201d Mille said.<\/p>\n
Mille said money raised from the event supports CPR training, public health education and life-saving research.<\/p>\n
The Big Bend Heart Walk will take place Saturday, May 16, at 8 a.m. at Cascades Park.<\/p>\n
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