Calgary woman looking for her 'angel Natalie' who saved her life

Calgarian Natalie Kwadrans is looking for a woman – also named Natalie - who stopped and called 911 for her.

A Calgary woman who recently had a health scare is looking to make contact with a woman in her neighbourhood who helped get her to hospital.

Natalie Kwadrans, who was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer in 2019, was on a walk at about 8:15 a.m. on June 17 in Mackenzie Towne when she started to feel a bit of pain in her chest.

"As I was walking around the park near my house, I started getting really out of breath, and I was dragging myself almost," she told CTV News in an interview.

"I called my boyfriend and said, 'I don't know what's wrong, but something's wrong. I don't think I can make it home.'"

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Kwadrans said she started to feel better as she was speaking with him, so she hung up and started to walk again, but could only make it to another home, where she sat down on a rock nearby.

"Part of me was saying, 'Natalie, just get up and go, push through it,' so I was fighting with myself about what to do.

"As I was having this internal struggle, this woman dressed up in business clothes walks up and says, 'Are you okay?'"

Kwadrans says the woman sat down with her and helped her calm down and figure out what was happening.

The woman then called 911, and that's when Kwadrans discovered they both had the same first name.

"It was kind of funny so that's why I call her 'My angel Natalie.'"

When an ambulance arrived, paramedics learned Kwadrans had high blood pressure and a very high heart rate.

She was taken to the Foothills Medical Centre where doctors later determined, based on her heart problems and cancer diagnosis, she could be suffering from venous thrombosis.

"Cancer is one of the leading causes for venous thrombosis, and out of venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolism is the deadliest kind."

Kwadrans says she had a blood test and a CT scan, which revealed she had a bilateral pulmonary embolism.

"So both sides of the lungs were affected."

She's since been treated for the condition and is on the mend, but says she wants to make contact with her "angel Natalie" to thank her for helping.

"I kind of hazily remember her," she said. "I am looking for this light brown or darkish blond woman with long hair, professional looking – I don't know if she was walking to work or just taking a walk in Mackenzie Towne – so that I can thank her for saving my life.

"I don't think that she thought that would be the diagnosis – I don't think I knew that would be the diagnosis."

Kwadrans says if not for her angel Natalie's intervention, she likely would have attempted to push through and walk home, a decision that could have been fatal.

"Everyone has told me how lucky I am to be alive."

Kwadrans says she did give her saviour a hug before she got into the ambulance, but she wants to meet her again to thank her for stepping in to help.

"I would tell her how grateful I was to the fact she stopped, because not many people would've. You're so busy going to work.

"I even remember telling her, 'It's okay, I can wait now that you've called the ambulance, I'm okay to wait.'

She said, 'Nope, I'm waiting with you.'"

The icing on the cake, Kwadrans says, is her angel Natalie did more than just save her life – she also helped walk her dogs back home once she was in the care of paramedics.

"I gave her a one-time use emergency (security) code (for my house) and she walked my dogs home."

Kwadrans has since reached out on X to try and track down her angel Natalie, and says many people are now out helping her look.

"I never caught her last name or phone number, though that's what prompted me to put the tweet out."