CLEVELAND — From the outside looking in, Ali Hoit and Pam Hays sound like old friends. But the core of their special bond is rooted in fate, dating back to October of 2023, while Pam was working as a NICU nurse at Cleveland Clinic Children's.
"I walked into work like I normally do on a Monday morning. I felt unwell. I had heaviness in my chest, I had jaw pain and I was very diaphoretic, which means sweating," Pam explained.
Knowing her family's history with heart disease, she realized what was happening to her.
"I said, 'Ladies, I think I'm having a heart attack,'" Pam said.
She was. It was a widowmaker, with full blockage in her heart's biggest artery. While her colleagues worked on her, things to a turn.
"I went into cardiac arrest at that point," Pam said.
Her coworkers did CPR, then activated a defibrillator.
"Twice. So basically shocked," Pam said.
It brought her back to life. She was intubated and terrified. She thought of her family, but had full faith in her skilled colleagues.
"Had I not been in the Cleveland Clinic, I would have been a lot more scared. I knew I was in the right place at the right time," Pam said.
And, with the right people by her side. Hours after Pam's heart attack, Ali, a nurse practitioner at Cleveland Clinic, and mother of three girls, came into her room.
"I went over and I leaned over and I looked at Pam and I was like, 'Everything's gonna be okay,'" Ali said.
"I remember her standing in the doorway and talking to the nurses," Pam said. "She said, 'We'll take good care of you.' And then she said, 'Goodnight, Pam.'"
After three months of recovery, Pam went back to work.
'I feel good. I feel better than before the heart attack," she said.
In the beginning of March, Pam was caring for a baby, "Maddie," who was born at 32 weeks, and needed breathing and feeding help. When Maddies' mom returned to the room, Pam was stunned.
"She said, 'I took care of you. I was your nurse practitioner,'" Ali said.
The calm voice Pam heard in her hospital bed, was Ali. A full circle moment.
"We both got goosebumps," Pam said.
"I just couldn't I couldn't believe it," Ali chimed in.
A twist of fate. Pam was meant to care for Ali's baby.
"I actually signed up to be Maddie's primary so that every time I work I get her," Pam said.
Pam was paying it forward to Ali, in one of the hardest times of her life.
"To lay in bed at night and not be home with your kid ... it just means a lot to know that people are there caring for them," Ali said through tears. "Crazy that I took care of Pam, but, they've all just been so loving."
It's a family in the NICU. They have each other's backs, love their kids like their own, and now, are bonded for life.
"Oh, I told her she's never gonna get rid of me. I'm gonna stalk her now for life, her and Maddie, so I can watch Maddie grow," Pam joked to Ali.
"I just, I love Pam. I love all the nurses over there," Ali said.
"Yeah. She's bonded very well," Pam added.
"I feel like they're my friends now," Ali said.
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