Bride Goes Into Cardiac Arrest One Day After Her Wedding, Finds Out She Has Extremely Rare Medical Condition

Sara Seeley was on the way to the airport to catch a flight to Hawaii when she went into cardiac arrest

An Oregon bride went into cardiac arrest on the day after her wedding. Instead of going on her honeymoon, she was rushed to the hospital and learned she had a rare heart condition.

As reported by CBS affiliate KOIN, Sara and Mitch Seeley were on their way to the Portland International Airport on Oct. 23 to catch a flight to Hawaii when Sara went into cardiac arrest. Mitch's mother had to pull over so her son could perform CPR on his wife.

It took medical staff at Adventist Health facility 20 minutes to get Sara's pulse again, and she was soon transported to Oregon Health & Science University's (OHSU) intensive care unit, according to KOIN.

Sara's sister Jane Madden told the outlet that after four weeks of testing to determine a possible cause of the cardiac arrest, doctors discovered she had high iron levels — a symptom of a rare condition called juvenile hemochromatosis.

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According to the Mayo Clinic, the condition occurs when a patient's blood absorbs too much iron from the food they eat. The excess iron is then stored in organs, most commonly the liver, heart and pancreas. Hemochromatosis can lead to life-threatening conditions like liver disease, heart conditions and diabetes.

The Mayo Clinic reported that these symptoms often appear when a person reaches midlife. Sara is 28.

Symptoms include heart failure, liver failure, diabetes, joint pain and other abnormal pain. The Mayo Clinic reported that hemochromatosis is commonly caused by a "gene change passed down through families." The disease is categorized as juvenile hemochromatosis when it affects teens or young adults aged 15-30, Stanford Medicine reported.

Madden told KION that after the cardiac arrest, her sister had a stroke on the right side of her brain that temporarily paralyzed the left side of her body.

According to the outlet, Sara's currently taking heart medications and iron chelation to potentially treat her condition. She's also receiving physical therapy to hopefully improve her body's functioning.

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Madden organized an online fundraiser to help Sara and Mitch pay for Sara's medical treatment. Madden said Sara was added to her husband's medical insurance plan soon after their wedding but didn't have health insurance before then, which "has resulted in astronomical medical bills that are continuing to accumulate."

The crowdfunding campaign has raised over $15,000 at the time of publication.

An update from Madden on Dec. 5 said that Mitch's insurance company is currently denying Sara "coverage for crucial, life-saving medications, deeming them 'experimental' due to the rarity of Sara's condition and the lack of clinical trials." Per Madden's update to the fundraising site, Sara and Mitch will have to move in with Sara's family to ensure she continues to get the treatment she needs.

“They are hopeful that her heart failure can be reversed with the treatment,” Madden told KION. “There’s like four case studies out there of people who’ve had this condition and had heart failure and come back from it.”

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