Local Kindergarten Teacher Who Suffered Major Heart Attack in Classroom Saved by School Colleagues and Team at Jackson South Medical Center

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By: Krysten Brenlla

Tangela McBride, 54, has worked as an educator for many years.

“I fell in love with working with kids after being a teacher’s assistant,” McBride said. “In 2016, I started teaching full time. I love what I do.”

She never thought her life would be in jeopardy when she suffered a heart attack in the middle of her classroom.

On September 13, 2024, McBride was teaching when she collapsed on the floor. Fortunately, the school’s music teacher went looking for her. When she knocked on McBride’s classroom door, a 5-year-old student opened it, and her colleague saw her unresponsive.

The music teacher immediately ran to check McBride’s pulse, and called for help. Within minutes, the school’s police officer performed CPR and shocked McBride with an automated external defibrillator – an action that potentially saved her life.

When emergency medical services arrived, they continued treatment and rushed her to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson South.

“The patient came in intubated and sedated – we kept her intubated because we wanted to run some scans to pinpoint exactly what caused the heart attack,” said Andrew Pastewski, MD, medical director of Jackson South’s intensive care unit (ICU). “After several tests, the patient started to have purposeful movements, which is a sign the brain didn’t go without oxygen.”

In the ICU, a team led by Dr. Pastewski and Bashar Obeidou, MD, an interventional cardiologist at Jackson South, initiated a cardiac work-up, which showed a completely normal heart function.

Within 24 hours, McBride’s condition improved. To help prevent future heart attacks, a team led by Ivan Mendoza, MD, chief of cardiology at Jackson West, implanted a defibrillator – a device that applies an electric charge or current to the heart to restore a normal heartbeat.

“The remarkable thing is that an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest has a 7 to 8 percent chance of survival. Luckily, her heart was completely clean. She beat so many odds,” Dr. Pastewski said. “Victims of heart attacks have a six-minute window before the brain needs oxygen. Chest compressions recycle the six-minute window – the officer broke ribs and caused a splenic hematoma because he did it right. Additionally, having a defibrillator is so important – he saved her life.”

After spending nearly 10 days in the hospital, McBride was ready to go home.

“My kids kept telling me that I looked so swollen when I arrived at the hospital.” McBride said. “All I could think was, ‘the angels were with me that day.’”

Today, she continues to recover. Although she hasn’t returned to the classroom, she’s looking forward to her next chapter.

“I can’t thank everyone enough for what they did,” McBride said. “I have a new birthday – September 13 – and I’ll celebrate this day for the rest of my life as the day that God gave me a second chance.”