MONROE - On Jan. 21, 1995, at the age of 38, with a successful career as an actress and comedian, Tracey Conway dropped dead, literally.

The emergency volunteers who responded listed her as deceased on medical forms. When they arrived at the studio, she was officially dead.

But the firefighters who responded didn't stop trying to resuscitate her and their actions brought her back to life before she was taken to the hospital.

The night started normal enough for Conway, a star on a hit television show in Seattle.

She and her fellow cast mates had just finished taping their show when she suddenly fell on the floor.

"The audience was laughing because they thought it was part of the show," Conway explained Tuesday during a presentation sponsored by Monroe Clinic at Monroe High School.

But something was seriously wrong. As Conway's eyes began to glaze over and roll back in her head and her skin began to turn gray, people on stage with her knew something was wrong.

"I don't remember anything from that night ... or the next four days," Conway said.

All she knows about the night is what other people have told her.

They tell her about the firefighter in the audience who quickly rushed to the stage to start cardiopulmonary resuscitation, how other firefighters responded to the studio and how close they thought they were to losing her.

Conway sustained a cardiac arrest; for 20 minutes she was dead.

"For every minute the heart isn't working, the chance for living decreases by 10 percent," she said.

Conway wants people to be aware of what they can do to keep themselves healthy.

"We just take our heart for granted because we think it's always going to work," she said.

Conway was in Monroe to talk about heart health.

She knows from experience how important heart health is.

Forty-six people die every hour from heart disease, Conway said, and heart disease is the No. 1 killer of men and women.

Conway should know, she died.

But she is able to tell her story.

Her brother, Mark, was not so lucky.

Six years before she had a cardiac arrest, she received a call from her father early one morning.

"I knew it wasn't going to be a good call" because it was early in the morning, Conway said. Her dad told her Mark had died. She thought it was her Uncle Mark, her dad's older brother.

"I told him I was sorry to hear about Uncle Mark and he said 'It was your brother, Mark,'" Conway said.

She was stunned. He was only 39.

"I saw what it did to my family," Conway said.

Conway said there are some things people can't control but health is something people can control.

"Learn from me," she said.