Utah Mom, 33, Has Heart Attack After Walking on Treadmill, 4-Year-Old Son Told His Dad She Was ‘Sleeping’

• Utah mom of two Justine Carter, 33, collapsed after running on her treadmill — and her husband Kevin and mother-in-law Teresa found her unconscious in the bathroom
• Her heart stopped due to a tear in an artery in her heart, called spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD)
• The tear grew larger after she was discharged, which led to a second heart attack

A Utah mom of two suffered a heart attack after working out on a treadmill — and now she’s speaking out about the rare condition that doctors believe caused her near-fatal emergency.

Justine Carter, 33, was 12 minutes into her treadmill workout last May when she started feeling shortness of breath, she told Fox News.

The Santaquin, Utah, resident started feeling pain shooting from her back to her chest.

She had been filming her workout for social media, according to a video shared by local affiliate Fox News 13. Audibly breathless, Justine says in the video, “That was not a good idea. I should have listened to my body.”

“Ooh, I don’t feel good,” she says in the clip. As her husband Kevin told the outlet, when Justine called him on the phone, he could hear her vomiting.

Then he said she stopped talking, and their son Tucker, 4, told him she was “sleeping.”

Kevin rushed home, accompanied by his mother Teresa — where they found Justine having a seizure in the bathroom, barely breathing. 

Then Justine’s heart stopped, and Teresa — who’s a nurse with HCA Healthcare’s Mountain View Hospital in Payson — performed CPR until paramedics arrived and took over.

“The next thing I knew, I woke up in the hospital,” Justine told Fox News.

“She had what we call ‘tombstone rhythm’ on the monitor, which tells us she was having a heart attack, and that her heart muscle was not getting enough oxygen,” Teresa told Fox News.

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Justine was taken to HCA Healthcare’s Mountain View Hospital, where doctors determined she’d had spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD).

It most commonly affects women in their 40s and 50s, according to the Mayo Clinic, and is an “emergency condition that occurs when a tear forms in a wall of a heart artery.”

It can “slow or block blood flow to the heart, causing a heart attack, heart rhythm problems or sudden death.”

The people who have SCAD “don’t have risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes,” and the cause is unknown.

Justine said she had no warning signs that day, but did feel off. “I just felt like I had low energy that day and didn’t feel up to par — but I just thought it was because it was winter and cloudy outside,” she told the outlet.

A week later, Justine had a second heart attack, as doctors discovered the tear in her heart had grown larger.

Today she is still recovering from the emergencies. While she can take her dog for walks, she hasn’t yet been cleared to resume cardiac-intensive activities like hiking or running.

“I was really tired for the first two weeks, and then my energy level started coming up,” she told the outlet. “Now I can get through the whole day without needing a nap.”

She and her mother-in-law Teresa are speaking out about the importance of CPR, which kept Justine alive while her heart was stopped.

“Even for non-medical people, it’s such a valuable skill to have,” said Teresa. “You will most likely be able to help someone you love.”

To find a CPR class near you, visit the American Red Cross’s searchable catalog here.