From the ICU to the slopes: Coordinated care at Vandalia Health Mon Medical Center helps Spencer woman reclaim her life | Amy's story
Posted Date: 02/27/2026
On a clear winter morning in Canaan Valley, Amy Fry steadied her skis atop her favorite slope, breath visible in the cold mountain air. It was a moment she once feared she would never experience again.
More than a decade ago, Fry’s medical journey began at just 34 years old with a diagnosis that led to open heart surgery, intensive cardiac care and months of rehabilitation — when survival, not skiing, was the goal. In the years that followed, additional health challenges would test her resilience and reinforce her trust in the coordinated care she found at Vandalia Health Mon Medical Center in Morgantown.
On a clear winter morning in Canaan Valley, Amy Fry steadied her skis atop her favorite slope, breath visible in the cold mountain air. It was a moment she once feared she would never experience again.
More than a decade ago, Fry’s medical journey began at just 34 years old with a diagnosis that led to open heart surgery, intensive cardiac care and months of rehabilitation — when survival, not skiing, was the goal. In the years that followed, additional health challenges would test her resilience and reinforce her trust in the coordinated care she found at Vandalia Health Mon Medical Center in Morgantown.
An ordinary morning
The morning of Feb. 17, 2012, started like any other. A nurse, Fry had just completed five 12-hour shifts and initially brushed off her symptoms as exhaustion.
“I just didn’t feel good — severe nausea, extremely tired,” Fry said. “I thought it was because I had worked five 12-hour shifts before that.”
After dropping her daughter, Cara, then 5 years old, off at school, Fry drove to a neighboring county to pay her personal property taxes.
“I was in the sheriff’s office and just started feeling hot. But, you know, it’s February and I had a coat on, so again, I didn’t think much of it.”
That quickly changed.
“I walked out to the parking lot and bent over to put the sticker on my license plate, and it felt like somebody hit me with a sledgehammer,” Fry said. “Being a nurse, I knew it was something with my heart. I checked my carotid pulse and it just felt off.”
Fry drove herself a few blocks to a clinic, but by the time she reached the waiting room, she collapsed to her knees. With no provider on site, she was taken by ambulance to Elkins.
“I knew the doctor at Elkins — I had worked with his wife. He said, ‘OK, something’s wrong. We’ve got to get you going. Where do you want to go?’ There was no doubt in my mind. I was going to Mon. I grew up going there with my grandparents, so I knew that’s where I wanted to go. And the next thing I knew, I was in a helicopter on my way to Morgantown.”
At Vandalia Health Mon Medical Center, Fry was rushed to the cardiac catheterization lab. There, she met cardiologist Richard Smith, MD, moments before her procedure.
“He introduced himself to me as they were putting me on the table and told me that he was going to take care of me,” Fry said. “That was it. I don’t remember anything after that.”
What physicians quickly discovered was not a routine heart attack. Fry was experiencing an acute and extremely rare spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) — a sudden tear in one of the heart’s main arteries, specifically the left anterior descending artery, which supplies blood to a large portion of the heart muscle. The tear severely restricted blood flow and also involved another major branch artery, placing a significant portion of her heart at risk.
In many young, otherwise healthy patients, this type of sudden blood flow restriction can trigger a fatal heart rhythm before they ever reach the hospital. Remarkably, Fry did not develop those life-threatening arrhythmias — giving her care team a critical window to intervene.
Most patients with this type of sudden event do not survive long enough to reach the hospital. Her decision to seek care at Mon Medical Center reflects her confidence in a team capable of managing even the rarest and most critical cardiac emergencies — with advanced heart care readily available.
Unlike many heart patients who develop gradual blockages over time, Fry had no warning signs or prior heart damage. Her condition was sudden, severe and rapidly deteriorating.
“Amy’s situation was catastrophic and unfolding in real time,” Dr. Smith said. “She had an extensive tear involving the most critical coronary vessel. In many cases, this is immediately fatal. Our heart team moved quickly to stabilize her circulation and implant a temporary support device to buy precious time so we could get her to surgery. Every minute mattered.”
Within moments, interventional cardiology, cardiac surgery, anesthesia, perfusion, nursing and critical care teams were mobilized — executing a carefully coordinated, time-sensitive plan with defined roles and seamless communication.
Fry’s condition required emergency open-heart surgery, performed by Alexander Nagy, MD, Chief of Cardiac Surgery.
“This was not a routine bypass,” Dr. Nagy said. “In the thousands of open-heart surgeries I’ve performed over my career, I have rarely encountered a case like Amy’s. The tear extended into multiple major coronary branches, including the left anterior descending artery and other critical vessels. Most patients with this type of extensive and unexpected tear do not survive.”
To restore blood flow, the surgical team developed a complex plan that had not previously been performed at Mon Medical Center — creating an extended six-centimeter bypass graft to the left anterior descending artery, along with additional grafts to other affected vessels on the left side of her heart.
“It required a very long reconstruction of blood flow and meticulous coordination in the operating room,” Dr. Nagy said. “It was technically demanding and extremely high risk. But she was 34 years old. She deserved the chance.”
Behind the scenes, the broader heart and vascular team continued working in seamless coordination — managing circulation support, monitoring heart rhythm, guiding anesthesia, preparing the intensive care unit and anticipating the next phase of recovery before the surgery was even complete.
“When cases like this happen, it’s never one physician,” Dr. Smith said. “It’s a fully coordinated heart team — from the cath lab to the operating room to the ICU — moving in sync. That level of coordinated, personalized care gave Amy the opportunity to survive something most people would not.”
“In what world does a surgeon say, ‘We’re going to operate on this girl who has a heart function of three?’” Fry said. “Dr. Nagy just wanted to give me a chance to be a mom.”
When Fry finally opened her eyes the following Tuesday, her father was there.
“When I woke up, my dad was sitting beside me,” Fry said. “He didn’t say much. He just held my hand. I didn’t know how bad it had been yet — but I knew if he was there, it must have been serious. He never told me how scared he was, not until years later. But I could see it in his eyes.”
One team, every step of the way
Over the years, Fry’s care has included surgery, electrophysiology, catheterization, imaging and rehabilitation — delivered by the Vandalia Health Mon Heart and Vascular Center team who remained closely connected throughout each phase of her recovery. The initial event left lasting damage to her heart’s electrical system, requiring ongoing rhythm management, additional procedures and careful device monitoring.
For Fry, the experience never felt fragmented.
“It never felt like separate departments,” she said. “It felt like one team.”
And that team didn’t just care for Fry — they cared for her daughter, too.
“Everybody included Cara,” Fry said. “The doctors talked to her. They asked her if she had any questions. The ladies in the little café by the lobby knew Cara’s vanilla latte order before she even got to the counter. That’s when you know you’re not just a room number. They watched her grow up right alongside me.”
During Fry’s initial recovery, she relied on her parents for support and temporarily moved back home, where early progress was difficult.
“I remember when Cara went back to school, I wanted to go to the end of the driveway to get her off the bus and I couldn’t make it — like 20 feet — and my dad had to come get me,” Fry said. “That’s when I realized this is going to take a while.”
But Fry stayed determined.
“Recovery was brutal,” Fry said. “But I was hell bent on it — it wasn’t going to get me down.”
In the years that followed, additional procedures and device adjustments became part of Fry’s routine as physicians worked to manage the lasting effects of her initial heart event. At one point, Fry’s implantable cardiac device had to be adjusted and later replaced as part of her continued care. The setbacks were frustrating — but they never changed her goal.
“My goal has always been, ‘I want to ski — you have to let me ski,’” Fry said. “If I can’t ski, then I might as well just go ahead and stop now.”
Skiing is more than a hobby for Fry. She grew up skiing at Canaan Valley Resort and has been part of the ski patrol community for more than three decades — following in the footsteps of her father, who spent 40 years on patrol and was one of the resort’s earliest members.
“I get to ski and carry my dad’s legacy,” Fry said. “He was there when I woke up in that hospital room. Now when I stand at the top of the mountain, I feel like he’s still right there with me.”
Yet her determination wasn’t only about the mountain.
“More than anything, I wanted to be here for my daughter,” Fry said. “I wanted to watch Cara grow up.”
A second test of trust
Nearly eight years later, just as Fry found her footing again physically and emotionally, another frightening diagnosis would test her resilience and her trust in her care team once more. In January 2020, after experiencing symptoms of abdominal pain, Fry was told at a local hospital that she had ovarian cancer.
“I had just overcome everything with my heart. I had just buried my dad. And now I have cancer? I couldn’t believe it,” Fry said.
Fry chose once again to seek care at Mon Medical Center and scheduled an appointment with gynecologic oncologist William McBee, MD.
“The first thing he said after he introduced himself was, ‘You do not have ovarian cancer,’” Fry said. “I felt like I was going to float off the bed.”
Instead, Fry was diagnosed with severe endometriosis and underwent surgery.
The procedure itself was successful. Because of her heart history, she was recovering at home on blood thinners when an accidental fall in her yard led to internal bleeding — and back to Mon Medical Center.
“My husband and I were just walking outside and our German shepherd turned and knocked me down,” Fry said. “I got right back up and didn’t think much of it.”
Hours later, severe pain sent her back to the hospital, where physicians discovered internal bleeding and transferred her to Morgantown for emergency care.
The incident occurred during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when visitor restrictions were in place. Fry’s husband could not remain at her bedside.
But she was not alone for long. Members of her heart care team — physicians and staff who had treated her for years — came to check on her and sit with her during the scare. Elizabeth Carpenter, BSN, RN, Director of Nursing, Cardiovascular Services, made sure Fry wasn’t alone.
“They didn’t have to do that,” Fry said. “Liz made sure I wasn’t by myself. They knew me. They knew my history. They showed up.”
For Fry, the experience reinforced the importance of receiving care within a coordinated system at Mon Medical Center, where providers understand the full scope of a patient’s medical history — and where her heart history was never separate from the rest of her care.
“Even though it’s a long drive for us, we’ll always go to Mon,” she said. “My husband’s had job opportunities out of state, but it’s important to us to be near the doctors who saved my life and continue to care for me. They know my heart. They know my story.”
The impact of Fry’s medical journey has shaped more than her own recovery. Today, Cara is a nursing student and hopes to specialize in pediatric cardiac intensive care. Fry believes her daughter’s career path was influenced in part by the years she spent alongside her mother in hospital rooms and clinics.
“They included her in everything,” Fry said. “They talked to her. They answered her questions. She saw what that kind of care looks like.”
Back to the slopes
Each year on Feb. 17, Fry marks what she calls her “Happy Heart Day” — a reminder not of the crisis, but of survival, second chances and the team that helped her reclaim her life.
Fry returns to the slopes each winter — not at the same pace as before, but with a renewed perspective.
“I can’t ski the way I used to,” she said. “But I get to be there. I get to be with my ski patrol family. And I get to ski.”
For more information about heart care at Vandalia Health, visit MonHealth.com/Heart.