BHealthy Blog

Cindy Huneycutt

Cindy Huneycutt was an active mother to four children with no known health concerns. One rainy afternoon she was at home on their family farm with her two sons when she suddenly stopped breathing. Her life forever changed in that one moment.

“She just stopped talking to me, and started breathing really weird,” her 17-year-old son, Trey said, “So, that’s when I called the ambulance.” The paramedics arrived to a grim site. “She was dead, sitting in a chair.” responding paramedic, Jeremy, recalls. Cindy had already turned blue and was without a heartbeat. The paramedics began CPR right away. Cindy’s husband, Ted, walked in while they were trying to resuscitate her, “She was gone.” He said. The paramedics continued CPR all the way to Baptist Health Medical Center-Arkadelphia where on-site physicians were able to recover a quivering heartbeat.

With the circumstances not promising, the on-site physician remembered a new technology at Baptist Health Medical Center-Little Rock that could give Cindy a fighting chance. MedFlight transported her immediately.

After arriving at BHMC-LR, Dr. David Jones rushed Cindy to their catheterization lab where he opened her artery, which was 100% blocked, fixed it and then performed Therapeutic Hypothermia treatment.

Therapeutic Hypothermia is a procedure that cools the body for 24 hours then re-warms it from the inside out by way of a catheter inserted into a vein.

Within 12 hours of re-warming she began to wake up. Her family couldn’t believe what just happened. “She died in front of her son who called EMS. She was having a large heart attack at the time.” Dr. Jones said after looking back at the situation.

“I’m thankful for all the prayers we got. It is a miracle!” Trey, said.

“That’s the reason why I went into medicine.” Dr. Jones said. “To see patients wake up when they shouldn’t wake up.”

Less than a week later, Cindy was ready for discharge. “I’m just so grateful to the group at Arkadelphia and in Little Rock, and Dr. Jones! They have truly been unbelievable.” Cindy said tearfully. “I don’t know how you thank them for saving your life, but I’m going to try.” And, try she did. She hand-delivered flowers to all the caregivers involved.

Keep on caring. Keep on healing. #KeepOnAmazing