Encore of the Heart: Montana Performer Makes Comeback After Heart Attack, Thanks to Caregivers at Intermountain Health St. James Hospital
Frankee Angel is a performer at heart.
She's moved on from the slinging gun shows and magic tricks of the past, but has found new passions in playing the piano at St. Patrick’s Church and acting in stage at the Motherlode Theatre.
But when her biggest performer went out, Angel thought the curtains would close forever.
“I was getting ready to play for mass when all of a sudden I wasn’t feeling well,” she said.
Angel recalled as members of the church took her to the emergency room at Intermountain Health St. James Hospital in Butte, Mont.
“They told me I was in the midst of having my second heart attack,” she said.
This news was a wakeup call. She hadn’t even recognized the symptoms of her first heart attack and to being told she was now having a second heart attack, it came as a shock.
“She sustained pretty significant damage to her heart leading to severe heart failure,” said Becky Wozniak, cardiology nurse practitioner at St. James.
Wozniak explained how for many women, heart attack symptoms have a late presentation, “meaning she waited to come to the hospital because she didn’t recognize the signs of coronary artery disease.”
After the two heart events, Angel’s heart ejection fraction, a measure of heart function, was at 15%. A drastically low number that indicates severe heart failure.
“A normal, healthy heart is between 50%-70%,” said Wozniak.
It was September 2024 and the impact, both physically and mentally, left Angel wondering if she would be able to live the life she loved.
“I really didn't think I was going to live,” said Angel. “I remember Dr. Carlos Albrecht coming in and telling me, ‘these parts of your heart have died, and they’re not going to ever come back.’”
The scar tissue on her heart left her heart organ weak, unable function efficiently as needed. The cardiology team at St. James spoke to Angel about putting in an implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) to keep her safe.
“When patients have heart failure, they’re at risk of their heart going into a dangerous rhythm,” said Wozniak. “Having the ICD in place will help shock her out of an arrythmia so that it doesn’t turn into a medical emergency.”
For months, Angel worked with the providers at St. James to strengthen her heart so that it could handle the implant. Their appointments started once a month. “When she was first in our office, she was so short of breath – just walking in from the parking lot was a chore,” said Wozniak. “Our immediate goal was to get her back to life as usual.”
Due to complications with fluid found around her heart, this process took a little longer while she and the team at St. James worked on trying a variety of different medications, focusing on consistency and small, positive developments.
In July 2025, Dr. Carlos Albrecht, cardiologist at Intermountain St. James Hospital performed the procedure to implant the ICD.
“I had instant energy,” she said. “It was a miracle – I'm able to just live like a person.”
She named it Minerva, her previous stage name when she was a magician’s assistant in the 1990s.
“She’s my little helper,” Angel said, patting her heart. “I'm going to be 62 – I'm going to make it to 62 because of Minerva and all the kind people at the hospital.”
Beyond the assistance of her new aide, she received comprehensive support from the cardiac rehabilitation team at St. James, who created a personalized treatment plan for Angel and guided her through the process of rebuilding her strength.
Now, she is back to the preforming world thanks to the help of her team at Intermountain St. James Hosputal and her new assistant, Minerva.
Angel has gone back to helping play the piano again during mass and is even preparing for her upcoming role in the play of Macbeth.
“It’s a miracle! I'm able to live like the person I am meant to be,” she said.
In 2022, Intermountain St. James Hospital set up the “Hearts in the Mountains” initiative to improve access to care for people with heart failure living in rural communities in Southwest Montana.
Since the launch of this initiative, readmission rates for cardiology patients at Intermountain St. James Hospital have dropped significantly – from 30% in 2022 to 11.40% in 2025.
The most important thing you can do to get ahead of heart disease is know your numbers and risk factors, Intermountain heart experts say.
To understand your risk factors, or schedule an appointment with your primary care provider, go to Intermountainhealth.org/heartmonth.