When the Heart Stops Beating
MONDAY, Jan. 5 — Deanna Babcock’s heart stopped beating on July 20, 2007. Just like that.
“I was swimming in a pool at North Carolina State University, doing normal laps,” recalled Babcock, who was 23 years old and in excellent health, or so she thought. “My strokes started getting sloppy, and I coasted to a stop face down.”
Jim Stoltz’s heart stopped on July 20, 2009. “I was sitting at my desk,” said Stoltz, 66, who is an accountant who lives in Flanders, N.J. “I don’t recall much. I simply went under my desk. I woke up five days later in the hospital.”