I Surprised Everyone By Living...
HEART ATTACK VICTIM

October 21st '94

So much for my retirement plans! When I keeled over with a heart attack, it was NO real surprise. I was 46-years old, smoked two packs a day, was 50-pounds too heavy from a lousy diet and no exercise, and had a father and four grandparents die of heart attacks.

You can imagine the stress level of TV news producing.

No, the only surprise was that it didn't happen SOONER!

I shed no tears when the cardiologist told me I probably would not live through the afternoon... feeling secure I was square with the Big Guy. But I surprised everyone and survived - although it was a rough road. I DID cry when the doctor told me I could never go back to work in a TV newsroom.


If you'd like to take a moment for a quick cardiac physiology and treatment lesson, pause here. Click the failing heart on the left <== to familiarize yourself with the parts of the heart. To see what happens during an angioplasty or heart catheterization (something I've enjoyed four times) click the sick heart on the right.==>


I should have died. I baffled everyone by surviving. A miracle here and there helped. However, I lived because a lot of dedicated professionals were always in the right places at the right times: When I was there!
Before I go on, I must show my appreciation to scores and scores of dedicated professionals who really saved my life. Just one of them NOT knowing what they were doing, and I'd be DEAD - not once - but many times over.


A majority of these people work at Morton Plant Mease Hospital, but there are many others. Click the graphic to read who these people are and why I consider them angels.


Now I'm doing my best to make sure their work was not "for nothin'." Obviously, I don't want to go through anything like this again. I'm doing what I can to prevent a replay:

Well... I don't smoke now, lost my excess baggage, eat lots of fruits & veggies, NO butter, NO cheese, and very little meat. I exercise - but still stay up too late.
Other than visits to the newsroom, my most stressful activity is giving my cats their flea dip. Living on the Gulf of Mexico, it's good for the soul as much as the body to walk down to water's edge, sit, watch the waves, and listen to nature.

I've also learned to live with a little box built into me just left of my belly button. Officially, it's called an "Automatic Implanted Cardiac Defibrillator." That's usually shortened to just A-I-C-D. My "Personal E-M-S Crew" zaps me with one heck of a shock when my heart goes into a fatal pattern - Just like in TV emergency rooms... when doctors press defibrillator paddles against the chest of the near dead and: "Buzzz."

So far for me, my little box has performed: 5 rescues! Here's why it's a life saver:


For the following three examples, click the graphic to activate and hear an I-Wave file after reading the caption.
First, let's listen to the ticker of a lazy guy or at least someone who is currently taking it easy. You can count and multiply if you want, but I'll can save you some time: His pulse is 72 beats per minute.








Now, let's check the pulse rate of someone who is in the middle of a fairly active workout. He's in pretty good shape so there's not a major demand on his heart which beats at 108 beats per minute.










Finally, checkout a heart beating too fast to count by listening. This is a case where the person's heart has gone into overdrive - beating at more than 200-beats a minute. It's a condition called tachycardia - beating too fast for what might be one or more of a wide variety of reasons.



Now when beating this fast, the heart does not not get to do its job: Complete a beat and pump blood around the body. Often, the muscle actually goes into a flutter mode - fibrillation - something which can kill very quickly from what is essentially a "faulty electrical system."
Think of the heart as an engine - just like the one in your car. The spark plugs must fire in a certain order to make the engine work. If they fire in the wrong order, the pistons jam and the motor stops. Your heart has its own version of spark plugs which make the various parts of the muscle tighten in a very specific order - from the upper right side to the lower left side.
In my case, my "spark plugs" got screwed up by a heart attack. It destroyed parts of the heart muscle and its electrical system. Those problems showed up a couple months after the heart attack. I started having "goofy" spells during which I'd get dizzy and disoriented a few days after Thanksgiving, 1994. I now know I had what was nearly a fatal case of Ventricular Tachycardia/Fibrillation on December 20th.
Click the scroll to the LEFT to read how closely I came to being killed by a government bureaucrat who signifantly delayed my reaching the hospital.
As soon as the folks in the emergency room got me wired up, a nurse called out "V-tach V-fib here" and all kinds of people started rushing around doing stuff to me, on me, for me. Later, when I got stabilized they said two minutes later and I would have gone straight to the morgue. Delightful thought. Thanks god, for all these people at Morton Plant!
The next few days were filled with all kinds of tests. The doctors decided drugs would not prevent my irregular heart patterns with any level of certainty so they wanted to implant an A-I-C-D in me. So two days after Christmas I underwent surgery and got a little box built into me - just left of my belly button.
Now it's on duty - every second of every day. If it detects a lethal cardiac pattern, it gives my body about half a second to correct it. If it doesn't, without any hesitation my EMS crew delivers its life saving "Therapy." Simply: The heart's stopped and if it doesn't return to a normal pattern, the little box paces the heart back to the way it should beat. You can get the feel for a "dose" by clicking the graphic to the right.
Honestly, there's NO way to describe it accurately and it's different every time you get a "treatment" and it's different for each individual. A blue flash accompanies most of my zaps. I feel what's like a mule kicking me in the chest. Every muscle in my body tightens then relaxes, as I slowly melt to the floor. Then I feel fine. Nice to know it's on duty!
Thanks to a strange set of coincidences, I was elected president of the support group for those of us who are now "human kangaroo power plants." That election happened on MY first trip to the group's monthly gathering! One thing the president does is write a monthly newsletter. Well that grew and grew and grew. Now it's so big that I have it on-line via the internet. Take a FREE look at "The ZAPPER's current issue by clicking here.

If you are a doctor or researcher who loves documentation... or a heart patient facing a scary road, I have another prize for you. I've gone through my heart attack, treatment, med changes, defibrillator implant, various trips to the hospital, rehab classes, and everything else... with a reporter's notebook firmly in hand. Feel free to read/download my entire history, including all those ProTime, Enzyme, and Cholesterol screenings.
Just click the left heart icon.

You'll zip/zap to Cardiac Pacemakers, Inc. if you click the right icon.
I trust the medical history doesn't bore you.
You may find it more interesting to visit CPI,
the builder of my magic little "Life Guard."

All my docs say I'm doing everything right to increase my chances for survival and continue to improve. Still, none will allow me to ever return to a TV Newsroom. Click MY LOGO to see what I AM doing.

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