Couch: Merchant's second health scare 'registered at another level'

(Photo: Al Goldis | For the Lansing State Journal)EAST LANSING – Suzy Merchant never really felt scared until doctors told her they were going to stop her heart.

Only for five seconds. A routine procedure as part of a test to determine the severity of a heart abnormality. But nothing about having your heart stopped by a dye administered through a catheter in a hospital several states from home is actually routine.

“(The doctor) is like, ‘You’re going to feel like an elephant is sitting on you,” Merchant said Sunday, following her first game back coaching Michigan State’s women’s basketball team in nearly a month. “‘Your head’s going to feel like it’s going to explode. And you might even feel…