“I’m fine now, thank God. I credit Beth’s early action and the incredible care I received for that.”
And Exceptional Care for One Middlesex County Man’s Miraculous Recovery
Sunday, January 28, began unremarkably. Luis Padron, now 51, exercised at home in Monroe in suburban central New Jersey, and headed to the bathroom. Beth Padron suddenly heard a loud thud. She knocked on the locked door, but there was no response. Beth eventually made her way into the bathroom but found her husband of nearly 20 years unresponsive on the floor.
Beth immediately called their daughters, Rebecca, now 18, and Eliana 15, for help. “Rebecca and Eliana called 911, and I started CPR,” Beth recounted. “The 911 operator guided me through it until the paramedics arrived.”
Paramedics from RWJBarnabas Health and Monroe Twp Rescue Squad arrived within minutes and rushed Luis to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) in New Brunswick.
Ankur Sethi, MBBS, FACC, an Interventional and Structural Cardiologist at RWJUH and Assistant Professor of Medicine, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, who treated Luis at the hospital in New Brunswick, recounted how the events unfolded when Luis arrived at the hospital.
Tests revealed no identifiable cause, such as coronary artery disease, highlighting the mysterious nature of his condition, Dr. Sethi said.
“Miraculously, despite the severity of his cardiac arrest, Luis suffered no neurological damage and began to emerge from his coma within days of admission. Initially slow in speech and orientation, he showed remarkable cognitive improvement in the following days,” said Dr. Sethi, who is also a provider with RWJBarnabas Health Medical Group.
Luis’s recovery was slow, but steady. “I don’t remember the first six days in the hospital,” Luis said. “My memory is patchy, and I relied on Beth to fill in the gaps.”
Beth further explained: “He wasn’t able to create short-term memories. He would text us, and sometimes we’d have to remind him that he had already said that.”
Luis’s recovery continued at home. “I went back to work two or three weeks later, which is not normal,” he says. Regular check-ups with his cardiologist and defibrillator testing showed no further issues. “The device hasn’t picked up anything abnormal.”
Months later, the Padrons’ ordeal brought a new appreciation for life. “We are very aware of how precious life is now,” Beth says. “We focus on the little things and cherish every moment. It was all traumatic, but we were so grateful for the little things. Every dinner and laugh with our daughters has become more special because we almost didn’t have it.”
Luis said he continues to thrive months after his cardiac arrest. “I’m fine now, thank God. I credit Beth’s early action and the incredible care I received for that.”
In addition to Dr. Sethi, Dr. Ossama Elsaid and a team of clinical experts treated Luis during his nine-day-long stay at RWJUH, where he also benefited from the hospital’s high acuity catheter lab work, receiving an implantable defibrillator that can shock Luis’s heart if he becomes susceptible to cardiac arrest again.
The Padron family lives in Middlesex County with their two daughters.