CARMEL — From chest pains that led to a ventilator that eventually led to a coma — a Carmel woman says she had to be brought back to life after suddenly going into cardiac arrest.
“If you had a lineup of people, you wouldn’t choose me. To be the one to have sudden cardiac arrest and yet it happened,” said Tess Kossow.
When it comes to health in general. Tess Kossow says she stays on top of things.
"People just think this will never happen to me I don’t need to worry about it. It’s that ignorance that I want to change most. The fact that I have women saying to me that they went to book a cardiologist appointment, and everything is good, but I heard your story and I figured I should just do that," said Kossow.
Heart disease kills one woman approximately every 80 seconds, taking more lives than all forms of cancer combined.
Fortunately, Tess is still here to live life with her family, be a wife, and raise her young son, but four months ago things really took a turn.
“It was hard because I didn’t get to say goodbye to my son and I had the signs of a heart attack first,” said Kossow.
“As of October 2020, I went into cardiac arrest,” said Kossow.
The road to recovery hasn’t been easy.
“Now that I have a defibrillator. I can work out again. I can run again and lift weights. For a while I couldn’t even wash my hair. It is small things like driving and picking up my son,” said Kossow.
Instead of resting, she’s teamed up with the American Heart Association and she’s on a mission to help other women. She believes her story, her journey, can change outlooks and save lives.
