Susan Loyer

@SusanLoyerMyCJ

Tamara D’Ambra of the Somerset section of Franklin suffered a massive heart attack.

She had one stent put in and spent several days recovering in the hospital.

She is now able to resume her life with her husband and three children.

NEW BRUNSWICK – A wife and mother, who suffered a massive heart attack, returned to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital on Friday to thank those who saved her life.

Tamara D’Ambra, 44, was at home on June 13 when she started to feel ill. She quickly took aspirin and her husband called 911. It was then that Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital’s Mobile Health Services arrived on the scene and used a defibrillator three times during the 13-minute ride to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick.

Once D’Ambra and the Mobile Health Services staff arrived at the hospital’s Emergency Department, a defibrillator was used three more times and once again in the catheterization laboratory. D’Ambra had one stent put in and spent the next several days in the hospital recovering, according to a statement.

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As a result of the rapid action and quality care she received from the hospital’s Mobile Health Services and the medical staff, she is now enjoying life with her husband, Vito, and three children — Nicholas, Vito and Melissa, the statement said.

D'Ambra met paramedics Timothy Gilligan and Jeff Lucas, as well as Emergency Medical Technicians Ashley Warger and Krista Schmid, for the first time since they worked to save her life.

"It takes a special person to do what you do and your families must be so proud of you," she said. "You gave me back my family. Without you I wouldn’t be alive. When raising our children, we can only hope they make good choices, and all of you have made a very good one (by choosing this field). Thanks to you I am alive. I am here and I am OK.”

She added that the EMTs and paramedics often work long hours and are away from their families.

She said they should “make sure that your families know that you care and that you are saving other people’s lives; you are doing something really important.”

D'Ambra also thanked the hospital’s nursing staff and told Victoria Choudhury, RN, BScN, CCRN, Nurse Manager of the hospital’s Critical Cardiac Care Unit, that "You reassured my husband that everything would be OK and that I was in good hands so he could take care of everything at home.”

She also thanked her husband for “holding everything down” at home while she was in the hospital.

Dr. Alpesh Patel, Attending Interventional Cardiologist at RWJ and a member of the 24/7 Heart and Vascular Specialist practice in Kendall Park section of South Brunswick, inserted the stent to open her blocked artery. He worked with Dr. Abel E. Moreyra, Professor of Medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Medical Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at RWJ New Brunswick.

“It’s rare that you use the defibrillator seven times and the person survives," Patel said. "Time is of the essence and if you are in the right place at the right time with access to a defibrillator, we can achieve success. It’s extremely gratifying to see someone like her take their second chance at life and use it well. It looks like she will make a difference with the second chance she was given.”

Lucas, a paramedic with Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Mobile Health Services, said that many times EMTs and paramedics don’t have the opportunity to meet the patients they assist or know what the outcome is.

"It means a lot to us to have a positive outcome and see the patient doing well and meet their family," he said. "It reminds you of why you put in all the hours and complete all of the training required."

Staff Writer Susan Loyer: 732-565-7243; sloyer@gannettnj.com