Only 12 percent of Americans nationwide survive a full-blown “widow maker” heart attack, according to the American Heart Association.

Carthage resident and Freeman Health System patient Annette Goeken is one of the rare lucky ones.

“I do believe I am a miracle,” she said with a smile. “I don’t know why I walked away from a widow maker. I’m just truly grateful that I did.”

Goeken knew the moment she felt the first stab of pain in her chest that she was in the grip of a heart attack. A nurse for more than 40 years, she certainly had seen such symptoms with past patients.

It was January 5, 2024, and Goeken was busy packing and putting away Christmas decorations upstairs when the pain from her chest quickly radiated to her back, left shoulder, and jaw. Even swallowing a nitroglycerin pill did little to ease the agony, which she said was a “7 to 8” on a 1-to-10 pain scale.

She was clammy, dizzy, sweaty, and in pain as she reached for her phone to call her husband, Vic, who was at work.

“I told him to come home immediately,” Goeken said. “Now, I wish I had called 911. I know that was the right thing to do. But that’s not what I did.”

Cardiologists like to say, “time is muscle” and for good reason—the longer a heart attack lingers, the greater likelihood heart muscle can be permanently damaged.

Rushing home, Vic drove her to Mercy Hospital Carthage. From there, she chose to be transported via ambulance to Freeman, partly because her son, Kelly, is an RN at Freeman Hospital West. On the drive over, she suffered a second heart attack.

“As soon as they got me into the catheterization lab, that’s basically all I remember,” Goeken said. Roughly 72 hours later, she woke up inside. Vic, constantly at her side, hadn’t slept a wink in four days.

Goeken survived three heart attacks, including the widow maker. At one point her heart had stopped beating, which forced Freeman cardiac staff—60 individuals all told—to perform CPR on her for more than an hour.

“Why they didn’t give up on me… I don’t know,” Goeken said. “But they didn’t.”

The reason they didn’t, said Freeman Cardiologist Dr. Vigyan Bang, is because paramedics, nursing staff, physicians, cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons, and others in various Freeman departments worked together like a “well-oiled machine” to save Goeken’s life. It’s a reason why Freeman is designated a Level 1 STEMI Center by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. To that end, Freeman has a door-to-balloon time of less than 55 minutes, lower than the 90-minute recommendation.

During surgery, Dr. Bang used an Impella heart pump inside Goeken’s heart. This mechanical device delivered blood and oxygen to the rest of her body and gave Dr. Bang the time he needed to open her blocked arteries using stents.

“Most people with her type of heart attack don’t make it to the hospital; she had the blessing of someone above who was looking out for her,” Dr. Bang said.

All told, Goeken endured three surgeries and five stents installed to open her clogged arteries. She wrote on her Facebook page that she’d suffered from aspirational pneumonia, was intubated for three days, had lungs filled with blood, 21 different IV lines, “and more blood draws than you can imagine.”

But she pushed through.

“I do know that God put Dr. Bang in my path at that perfect moment he saved my life,” Goeken said. “I just can’t thank (him) enough.”

Citing her profession as a nurse, where she’s helped save countless lives over the last 40 years, “maybe this was life’s way of giving back all the care she has given to others over the years,” Dr. Bang said.

He said her recovery has been one for the record books. The heart attacks have had zero impact on her heart and body.

“Looking back at her (current) heart cath scans, no one would be able to tell she even had a heart attack,” Dr. Bang said. “That’s how dramatic her recovery has been.”

Sharing her experiences as a heart patient has become a mission for her.

“If it can help just one person recognize the symptoms of a heart attack,” Goeken said, “then sharing my story is worthwhile.”