The new partner at the law firm where Zach Williams works heard him talking about what happened to his wife. Amber Williams was 35 and seemed perfectly healthy when she felt excruciating chest pain. She'd had an aortic dissection, and it's often diagnosed during an autopsy.
"That's a weird way for you to tell me you're a widower," the partner said. To which Zach replied, "Oh, no. My wife is very much alive.
" But when he saw Amber at her office that day in early May 2023, three days after they'd completed the Oklahoma City Marathon, her coloring terrified him. "I put on an Oscar-winning performance not to show how shocked I was," he said. "She was gray.
I'd never seen that color before and I haven't seen it since. I thought, 'I need to try to stay calm.'" Amber, who lives in Moore, Oklahoma, went to the closest emergency room.
Doctors considered that she might have issues with her lungs or kidneys, or maybe she was just dehydrated. The cardiologist on duty wasn't comfortable with any of those suggestions and decided to keep her in the hospital overnight. Part of his concern stemmed from her history of heart problems.
At 16, she was diagnosed with Turner syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that increases the risk of developing heart disease. Her primary care physician ran tests every few years to make sure all was normal. It always was, until about nine months earlier, when a CT scan showed her aorta to be slightly enlarged.
A cardiologist investigated further and said surge.