Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
WEST JORDAN — If grocery shopping isn't enough of an annoying chore, imagine having a sudden Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, attack in the middle of the store. That's what happened to Paula Shockey at a Harmons in West Jordan.
"I knew I was in AFib because my heart felt like it was beating out of my chest," Shockey said. "You think everyone can see that your heart is pounding out of your chest and then it was skipping."
She pushed her cart to the front of the store and asked for somewhere to sit down. Staff members came to check on her and saw that something was wrong. One manager went to bring the in-store pharmacist to her while another sat with her and asked if there was anyone she could call to help.
After sitting for a while, Shockey said she started to feel better and wanted to continue with her shopping, but as she got up she quickly discovered that her condition had gotten worse. The manager called 911 while Shockey called her husband.
She went into AFib again.
When the paramedics arrived they were unable to find a pulse and her blood pressure had reached a dangerously low rate. She was taken to the hospital in an ambulance and left her husband to wrap up.
"My husband arrived at Harmons the same time as the paramedics and I told him to just put the groceries back," Shockey said. The manager told her husband to go to the hospital and she would deliver the groceries to their home.
More Uplifting:
Strangers raised $190,000 for a girl hospitalized with EEE
A 5-year-old Massachusetts girl diagnosed with a rare mosquito-borne virus has returned home from the hospital, weeks after donors raised thousands of dollars for her medical expenses."A few hours after I was released there was a knock at my door and it was the manager from Harmons with all my groceries," she said. "I had left my list in the cart and she finished my shopping and delivered it right to my house."
Shockey thought her husband had paid for the groceries before he left, but the store manager had covered the cost of everything on Shockey's list, roughly $100 worth of groceries and said she was just happy to see that she was okay.
"(The manager) said 'I was so worried about you, and we at Harmons are just happy that you're all right,'" Shockey said.
Now that Shockey is recovering at home, she wants the staff at the West Jordan Harmons to know her appreciation. She said her and her husband had just moved to Utah a year ago and they didn't expect to make friends in the grocery store.
