LifeVest Saves 26-year-old Woman From Sudden Cardiac Arrest

ROY, Utah – Most people take feeling your heart beat every day for granted. For one young woman, it rarely escapes her mind.

At just 26-years-old, Karli Trimble was diagnosed with heart failure last January.

“They told me my heart is only pumping at 15 percent,” Trimble said. “I was scared for the future. I thought I was too young. You always hear about older people having heart failure.”

She visited with Intermountain Healthcare’s Dr. Jerry John, a cardiologist at McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden. Dr. John suggested she started wearing the ZOLL LifeVest.

It’s a wearable defibrillator designed for patients at high risk of sudden cardiac death.

“It was like carrying around a little purse,” Trimble described. “It was actually pretty uncomfortable, and it’s not cute, so I did not enjoy wearing it.”

As annoying as it was to wear, she said she owes her life to the little vest.

“It saved my life,” she said through tears.

Trimble wore the vest for only a month before it served its purpose on Feb. 16. She was getting ready for bed when she started to not feel very well.

“I felt like I was going to pass out,” she explained.

She called her mom to her bedside when her heart rate skyrocketed to 288 beats per minute.

“It was seriously the most awful thing I’ve ever had to live through. I thought she was gone,” said Cindy Trimble, Karli’s mother.

“I was just kind of shaking her, ‘Karli! Karli!” said her father, Tyne Trimble.

As designed, the LifeVest shocked Karli, bringing her back to life.

“I have a second chance at life because of it,” Karli Trimble said.

While Karli’s condition is genetic, she has learned a lot of things about heart health everyone can benefit from, like eating healthy and exercising.

She often takes her dogs for a walk to get moving and includes fruits and vegetables in her diet.

Dr. John said it’s really important for people to monitor their blood pressure and cholesterol levels to also maintain a healthy heart.

“High blood pressure hands its ugly hands on heart failure, kidney failure, stroke, heart attack, and most people have no clue what their blood pressure is,” John said.

He encouraged people to stay active.

“Even 20 minutes, three times a week would be fine. (Do) something to get your heart rate up,” he said.

Karli Trimble now has an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) and is preparing for a potential heart transplant, but said she is so grateful to be alive.

Karli Trimble went into emergency surgery to have a cardioverter defibrillator implanted after the LifeVest brought her back to life. (Photo: Courtesy of Karli Trimble)

“I just feel like I’m supposed to be here for a reason,” Karli Trimble said.

John said heart failure used to be a death sentence, but today, between advanced therapies, medications, and a better understanding of healthy heart living, it is often a chronic condition that patients young and old can successfully manage.