Down to the Wire: Man Saved After Having Heart Attack as Daughter Born
Jonathan Cedillo and Vanessa Sandoval, an engaged couple from Jurupa Valley, California, were excited to welcome their baby daughter into the world.
They were surprised when Sandoval went into labor a month before Juliette Francine was due, but looking back, it’s all seeming quite intentional.
The couple went to the Riverside Community Hospital, where Juliette came into the world on Oct. 8. She stayed at the hospital with her mom until Oct. 11.
In the meantime, Cedillo was experiencing quite a bit of discomfort. A professional wrestler, he’d injured himself months ago during training and had been experiencing what he’d assumed was lingering pain from the accident.
On Oct. 10, he decided to go home for the night to try to get some sleep, as he’d had a miserable time trying to sleep at the hospital. According to the Riverside Community Hospital, he’d been feeling achy and off, but even at home he wasn’t able to sleep for more than two hours due to the pain in his shoulder area.
Before going to pick up Vanessa and Juliette the next day, he got adjusted at the chiropractor and that helped a little, but he still had pain radiating from his chest, up his neck and down his arm.
It was so bad that, upon arriving to Vanessa’s room, he had to lie down, and lost consciousness. Brittney, one of the postpartum nurses, noticed his state immediately and saw that his breathing was shallow and even stopped at one point.
She rushed to get a wheelchair, and another postpartum nurse, Patience, wheeled him to the ER. He lost consciousness two more times on the way.
The little family soon discovered that Cedillo had actually been having heart attacks for some time, and the big one he’d experienced at the hospital was from a 100% blockage in his left anterior descending artery.
He was certainly in the right place at the right time. Because doctors were able to clear the blockage and place a stent so quickly, he was able to avoid permanent damage or death.
The next day Cedillo felt rejuvenated, saying it was the best he’d felt in months — and no wonder. The couple knows how blessed they were to be at the hospital at the time, and acknowledge that Cedillo could have died.
“He probably would’ve passed away at the house, possibly by himself or even later that night,” Sandoval told KTLA-TV.
“It was very scary, and then to be told that he’s in ER and he’s having heart attacks and he has been having heart attacks, [due to a] 100% blockage, it’s a very good thing he was at the hospital when he was having his major heart attack.”
Cedillo agreed that he would have continued to ignore the pain as being from his previous injury, and it could have cost him his life.
“If I had not been in the hospital at that particular moment and, you know, they caught it, I would’ve just shrugged it off as just more pain from, from my shoulder injury,” he said.
He firmly believes that his biggest hero is his newest little addition, and — if possible — his fatherly love is even greater because of it.
“She was born a month early,” he said. “It was like, ‘I’ve got to get out of here so I can save my daddy.’
“She saved me, and I will be her sentinel and guardian as long as I can.”
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