May 25, 2024 started off great. Little did I know, something was about to happen that would change my life forever.
I had a heart attack.
It all started with a family trip to Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Some Vacation.
I have always led a pretty health life. I love to eat, and sometimes would eat more than I should, but my diet was always well-balanced.
I don’t drink alcohol or smoke, never have.
Couple that with exercising 3-5 times a week for most of my adult life, you’d never know I was at risk for a heart attack.
As it turns out, heart disease runs in my family. I knew my grandfather died at a young age, but I was just a toddler when it happened. I never thought to ask how he died, and nobody ever told me.
You guessed it, he died of a heart attack.
If I had known my family’s health history better and shared it with my doctor, I might have been able to avoid my own heart attack.
Thankfully, I lived to tell the tale.
There are actually a couple of reasons I survived my own heart attack. First, my healthy lifestyle to that point. The other? I saw a video that taught me the signs of a heart attack.
Read the blog post about a healthcare video producer (cough, cough, me) was saved by a healthcare video.
Photo: just a couple of hours before the heart attack, we went on a 12-mile bike ride. It didn’t stress me at all.
Photo: for the record, my wife is amazing. Her crazy husband is having a heart attack and asking her to take photos, and she did!
If you have to have a heart attack in a foreign nation,
I highly recommend the Netherlands! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 😆
When I Knew.
After eating lunch, my chest really started to hurt. I mean, like, REALLY bad. A couple of minutes after that, my jaw started to hurt as well.
I thought to myself, that’s really weird.
Then, it hit me.
The image of a women having chest pain and moving her jaw around like something was wrong with it too.
I had seen a video about the signs of a heart attack at some point, and I remember thinking at that time… I didn’t know jaw pain was the sign of a heart attack.
That video saved my life.
I said to my wife, “This is going to sound crazy, but I think I’m having a heart attack.”
I’m telling you, if I had never seen that video, I would have just toughed it out. Had I done that, I wouldn’t have made it.
Watch the video that saved my life!
Created by director/actor Elizabeth Banks for the American Heart Association.
Spreading the Word.
After sharing my story on LinkedIn, a friend shared it with someone who works at the American Heart Association. Next thing you know, I’m being featured as one of their survivors.
The story will be out soon!
PRESENTATION PREVIEW: