Holding her four-year-old son’s hand and carrying her baby, Strookman walked into the school and went straight to the nurse’s office.
“I asked her to take my blood pressure and she was like, you don’t look good,” Strookman said. “I think I actually came in clutching my chest.”
The school nurse called an ambulance. Strookman was taken to St. Luke’s hospital on the plaza.
Doctors ran cardiac tests and noticed her troponin level was elevated. When they tested again a few hours later, it had quadrupled. Doctors immediately took her to the cath lab, where they diagnosed SCAD — Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection.
About 12 hours after coming home, at 4 a.m., Strookman was breastfeeding her baby when the symptoms returned.
“I started feeling the exact same symptoms. But they almost felt worse,” Strookman said.
She handed the baby to her husband, dialed 911 herself and met the ambulance at the door.
Back at the hospital, doctors discovered her original SCAD had dissected significantly. Her LAD was essentially wiped out. A couple of other arteries had torn as well.
Strookman was in cardiogenic shock. She underwent triple bypass surgery on Feb. 28, 2025. Doctors inserted an Impella heart pump to keep her blood flowing while her own heart couldn’t.
She woke up intubated in the ICU.
“I was scared. I was so scared. I actually remember wondering if I was dead,” Strookman said.
She spent 11 days in the ICU with the mechanical heart pump before it was removed.
