NORWICH – What was supposed to be a pleasant night of music and slots for two families turned dire after a Massachusetts woman suffered a seizure so severe it stopped her heart and lungs.
But Sandra Swenor said without the timely intervention of a Hartford Healthcare nurse, it could have been so much worse.
Swenor, a 60-year-old Springfield, Massachusetts resident, traveled to the Mohegan Sun Casino on Friday night to watch country superstar Blake Shelton take the stage. She drove down with her mother and the two settled into a suite while waiting for extended family members to show up.
“It was a great day,” Swenor said. “We played slots, had a big room and ate dinner. I love Blake Shelton.”
As she waited in the gaming area for the show to begin, Swenor, a diabetic, said she began feeling odd.
“I got dizzy and foggy,” she said on Wednesday from her bed inside The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich. “I could hear, but not understand what I was hearing. I thought it was anxiety. And that’s the last thing I remember.”
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A few feet away, Cindy Edwards, a regional supervising nurse who worked at both Backus and Windham hospitals, was out with her husband, also waiting for Shelton to perform, courtesy of a pair of tickets they’d won.
“My husband turned to me and said ‘That woman is having a seizure,’” Edwards said.
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Edwards, a 44-year-old East Haddam resident who cut her teeth as an EMT in Ledyard and emergency room nurse, rushed to Swenor’s side and identified herself as a nurse. As Swenor slumped over, Edwards guided her down and began her assessment.
“The…
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