Judy Mims still doesn’t recall what happened on Nov. 16, 2008, but she was on her way to Sunday school where she teaches at First Baptist Church on Mills Avenue.
Judy Mims the Survivor
Brown and her twin sister, Shirley Hackett, think that Mims stopped at Target on Kettleman Lane to get some cold medicine because she wasn’t feeling well.
She was in the restroom when she collapsed, Brown said. A customer, also in the restroom, heard a crashing noise, left the restroom and told an employee, who called 9-1-1.
AMR paramedics revived Mims with a defibrillator before taking her to Lodi Memorial Hospital. Doctors thought she wouldn’t make it through the night. Before the night was over, she was transferred to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Stockton.
“I have no memory at all of what happened,” Mims said. “I don’t know why I went to Target.”
“I realized I was at St. Joseph’s, but I didn’t realize the magnitude of how serious it was,” Mims said.
It was a long stage of rehabilitation, with both of Mims’ sisters staying with her for seven months.
One recent exciting day for Mims was July 28, when she returned to her classroom, where she teaches a fifth-grade Gifted and Talented Education class.
Mims said she has a class of good students who don’t cause her much stress, but she makes an extra effort to not subject herself to stress.
