Against All Odds

Forty-year-old Shannon Sansom of Mogadore was having a typical day at home when, without warning, she suffered a massive heart attack. EMS crews rushed her to the Summa Health – Akron Campus Emergency Department where teams of doctors and nurses were waiting to save her life.

Peter Bittenbender, M.D., Director of the Structural Heart Disease Program at Summa, said Sansom was suffering from as damaging a heart attack as one can suffer. Internal bleeding problems led to another team coming in to place her on a heart-lung bypass machine so she could survive surgery. Doctors told family members Shannon had a less than 1 percent chance of survival. But, she beat those overwhelming odds.

Still, there were challenges ahead. Complications forced surgeons to amputate her leg. When she woke up in the intensive care unit days later, Shannon was shocked to learn she had had a heart attack and that she had lost her leg. The loss of her leg has not held back her recovery. Sansom amazed Dr. Bittenbender when she walked in to a follow-up appointment with him just a couple of months after her heart attack. Next, she says, is getting back to bike riding!