Hurricane relief volunteer recounts surviving widowmaker heart attack

LINCOLN COUNTY, N.C. (InvestigateTV) - Glen Atwell, a Denver, NC, resident and heart attack survivor, is sharing a story about his medical battle in hopes of helping other people.

The 62-year-old said he, like many others, felt compelled to lend a helping hand after Hurricane Helene decimated communities across the Carolinas.

“When I saw the news and I saw fellow North Carolinians suffering, I just felt the need to help,” Atwell explained.

He ed a group of volunteers from his church to help with Helene relief on Riverside Drive.

The group visited the neighborhood on Saturday, October 12, 2024, and got to work. Atwell said he felt unwell as the group cut up debris along the road.

“I just felt incredibly weak, I couldn’t hold myself up,” he said.

Atwell said someone he was with alerted paramedics who had been stationed along Riverside Drive. The first responders started checking him out, gave him baby aspirin and istered an EKG.

“The EMT was reading the EKG monitor and she looks at me and she’s like, ‘Ooh no’” he said.

The 62-year-old said he then lost consciousness.

Lizz Kurc, assistant operations supervisor and paramedic with Medic, was one of the first responders working to save Atwell’s life.

“I mean he was dead. If we’re being completely honest, for six minutes his heart wasn’t doing what it needs to do,” Kurc explained.

She said Atwell eventually regained consciousness and started communicating with her and her colleagues again.

“He said, ‘I’m sorry I must have taken a nap.’ You didn’t take a nap, friend. You had died for about six minutes,” said Kurc in reference to her discussions with Atwell.

Atwell recalled the moment that Kurc and her colleagues brought him back to life.

“I had regained consciousness and she looks at me and she’s like, ‘We lost you. We had to hit you with the defibrillator three times,’” Atwell recalled.

He was rushed to the hospital. He learned he had suffered what many people commonly refer to as a “widowmaker” heart attack; one of the arteries leading to his heart was completely blocked. He said a doctor inserted two stents into his arteries after removing blockages.

“It’s hard to think your family was almost without a dad or your granddaughter was without a grandfather,” said Atwell.

Atwell said he has since been working with doctors and nurses at Atrium’s Sanger Heart and Vascular Institute to improve his diet and exercise.

He explained that while he felt fine in the days leading up to his heart attack, he should have realized he was at risk. He said his grandfather and great-grandfather died because of heart attacks.

“I should have been paying attention more to genetics and thinking about diet and exercise,” Atwell itted.

Dr. Nyal Borges, director of interventional cardiology at Atrium Health, treated Atwell at the hospital.

“For a lot of folks who have that heart attack outside of the hospital setting, the survival rate is 10, 15, 20 percent at the most, unfortunately,” Borges said.

The cardiologist said it is very important that adults learn R, continue to exercise, and make regular visits to a primary care doctor.

“Please, if you have a family history of anybody in the family with heart disease, or you’re a smoker or use other tobacco products or have other medical conditions, it is really, really, really important to go see a primary care doctor,” Borges stressed.

Kurc and Atwell recently reunited at Medic headquarters in west Charlotte. Atwell was able to thank the paramedics who saved his life.

“All of our providers hope for outcomes like this, and this is why we do it – for the rare occurrence that somebody gets another opportunity at life,” said Kurc.

Atwell said he has already made strides toward improving his health. He said he eats a Mediterranean diet and exercises regularly.

The cardiac patient said he hopes that sharing his story will inspire others to live a healthier lifestyle, too.

“If one person hears this story and they decide to make the changes with their diet and exercise, it’ll be well worth it,” said Atwell.

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