State Trooper Returns to the Line of Duty After Suffering a Heart Attack

Ethan Bradshaw is a state trooper from Kernersville, NC. Despite a family history of heart disease, Ethan takes pride in living a healthy lifestyle. He exercises several times each week and is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu instructor. On February 24, 2022, after experiencing chest pain and numbness in his arm at the gym, Ethan drove himself to Kernersville Medical Center, where his wife, Mickaela, was waiting for him. Mickaela was four months pregnant with their first child.

Upon arrival in the emergency room, Mickaela’s mother, a radiology technician at the hospital, brought Ethan a wheelchair where he sat before collapsing. Medical personnel shocked Ethan multiple times with an automated external defibrillator (AED) and performed CPR before transferring him, by police escort, to Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem, NC. 

Ethan was in cardiogenic shock when he got into the catheterization lab with a reduced ejection fraction of 20 percent. Dr. Samuel Turner implanted Impella CP® with SmartAssist® before placing stents in his left anterior descending artery. After two days of support, Ethan’s heart function showed dramatic improvement and Impella® was weaned and removed. Ethan was discharged after three weeks and was able to return home to Mickaela with his own heart. 

Today, Ethan has normal heart function (55-60 percent) and in May, returned to the line of duty. He and Mickaela welcomed their first child, Ryan, in July 2022.