Illini cheerleader Kayla Ratsamy, an otherwise healthy student, suffered a heart attack on Quad Day on Aug. 24 — and she didn’t even know it.

“There was a lot of shock, a lot of panic,” Ratsamy said.

Ratsamy, a senior in Education, was performing at Quad Day with the rest of the cheer team. Afterward, as she walked back to her car with her roommate and teammate, something felt off. She felt a tingling sensation in her shoulder that eventually spread to her arm. She also felt pressure on one side of her head, which she dismissed as a headache, figuring she was just exhausted from so many cheerleading practices leading up to Quad Day. When the feeling persisted, she decided to see the Illinois athletic trainer.

The athletic trainer told Ratsamy that only she could know if something was truly wrong. She began to wonder if there was, so she went to Urgent Care. After taking her vitals, the doctors there sent Ratsamy to the emergency room at Carle Foundation Hospital, where her cheer coach met her.

At first, the doctor thought Ratsamy was simply dehydrated or overheated. However, after he ran an EKG as a precautionary measure, he knew the problem was something bigger. 

“I felt a lot of nervousness and anxiety and panic, because this was so unfamiliar and unheard of for everyone — even the doctors,” Ratsamy said.

The doctor still wasn’t sure what the problem was, so he ran more tests. Everyone waited nervously for the results. When the results came back, they revealed that what Ratsamy had experienced was a heart attack.

The doctor told her that her EKG was very alarming for a 21-year-old girl.

“I was almost in disbelief, because my experience wasn’t like what you see in the movies,” Ratsamy said. 

The doctors never discovered the cause of the heart attack.

When her parents found out she’d had a heart attack, they scrambled to do anything they could to help and made the two and a half hour drive from Aurora, Illinois, to Champaign. Ratsamy says their haste was likely due to shock.

As for her recovery, Ratsamy said it hasn’t been too difficult. She was able to walk the day after the game and has found her cardiac rehab helpful. At these rehab sessions, Ratsamy does 30 to 45 minutes of cardiovascular exercise on various workout machines, under the monitoring of her cardiac therapists. She returned to cheer at the end of October, only performing on the sidelines at football games. While she will never be able to do stunts or tumbling again, she has since started doing the dance portion of field performances again. She has started jogging again as well. 

Ratsamy said the hardest part of recovery has been reevaluating her priorities. She has made lifestyle changes like choosing a full night’s sleep over going to a party and resting instead of hanging out with friends after performing at football games.

“It’s definitely more of a mental battle, but I’ve had a lot of support from my family and my roommate, and I see a therapist too, so that’s been really helpful,” Ratsamy said. 

When head Varsity cheer coach Stephanie Record, who had witnessed what happened, heard the results in the hospital, she made it a priority to be supportive of Ratsamy as well. 

She assured Ratsamy that she would still be a part of the “Illini cheer family,” regardless of her recovery timeline. She told her she would be included in any parts of cheer that she was medically approved to do.

“I felt it was important to give her space and privacy to focus on healing without feeling pressure from her cheer responsibilities,” Record said. “Kayla continues to add value to the team and the gameday environment simply by being present and supporting our athletic programs.”

Ratsamy’s roommate, Carly Sawicki, senior in Nursing, also witnessed the heart attack. A former Illini cheerleader herself, she went to the Quad Day performance to support the team.

Sawicki had a lot of thoughts running through her head when the test results came out.

“I was speechless at that moment,” Sawicki said. “I’d never heard of a heart attack happening to someone that young and healthy.”

To help, Sawicki has since offered both emotional and physical support to Ratsamy, giving her space to talk about her feelings and helping her with daily tasks.

Sawicki said she visited Ratsamy in the hospital frequently and that Ratsamy was free to ask her for anything.

“It was hard at first, but I feel like I’ve adapted to the new normal,” Ratsamy said. 

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