October 2 always sneaks up on me. I don’t really think about it much anymore. But at some point each Oct 2, I stop and think about that night, now exactly 9 years ago. Today has kind of become my unofficial Thanksgiving. My heart attack was one commonly referred to as the Widowmaker … So on this Oct 2, I’m thankful to be alive, and to have had these past 9 years watching my boys grow. I truly savor every day I get to spend with them.
The rest of this post is from a local magazine article about the events Noah and I went through that night. (Eric is my legal first name, I’ve just always gone by my middle name to family & Friends)
“My name is Eric. I’m in a black Nissan Altima on the side of the road on U.S. 27 about a mile north of a Camp Nelson hill. I have my 2-year-old son with me, and I think I’m having a heart attack.”
That’s how 38-year-old Eric remembers starting the conversation with the Jessamine County Emergency Medical Services 911 operator the evening of October 2, 2012. He was gasping for breath but at the same time trying to calm his 28-month-old son Noah, who was strapped in his car seat in the back. Later, Eric learned that 911 call from his cell phone lasted 6 minutes and 41 seconds, during which time his symptoms accelerated. Initially, shortness of breath was his only symptom, then both of his hands tingled and went numb, causing him to have to put the phone in speaker mode and lay it on the passenger seat instead of continuing to try to hold it. The chest pain started shortly thereafter and got progressively worse.
Help was on its way.
Looking back Eric knows he should have responded to warning incidents that occurred over the previous three months, the latest of which had happened that very afternoon. Each time he felt a burning sensation in his lungs “as if you had run full speed on a really cold day,” he described. With each incident, he felt short of breath for about two minutes, and then his breathing would return to normal. He even mentioned that afternoon’s incident in passing to his dad while he and Noah visited him and his stepmom in their Danville home that evening. It was more of a curiosity to Eric than anything to be truly concerned about. “I honestly thought I might have something wrong with my lungs,” he said. “It certainly never crossed my mind that it might be my heart.”
But about 15 minutes into the return trip from Danville to his Nicholasville home later that night, he quickly became concerned. He started to have trouble breathing, and, for Noah’s sake, pulled over on the side of U.S. 27 just in case he lost consciousness or had a wreck.
Eric called his wife at home and told her he thought he might be having a heart attack. Understandably alarmed, she told him to call 911. Eric convinced her to stay at home with their other son, 14-month-old Eli, mainly because he (Eric) had both of the couple’s child safety seats in the car that he was driving. Eric hung up with her and called his dad in Danville, telling him about the situation and asking him to come and get Noah. Then he called 911.
“I’m sure I did everything you weren’t supposed to do by making so many calls before I called 911, but my first concern was for Noah,” explained Eric. “I knew that once I called 911 the operator would want to keep me on the line, and I wouldn’t have a chance to call somebody to come take care of Noah.” His young son didn’t cry, but sensed something was wrong. “He kept saying ‘Daddy, Daddy, Daddy,’ over and over, and there was fear in his voice,” remembered Eric. “I kept saying, ‘It’s OK, Noah. Daddy’s going to be OK.’”
As the pain grew more intense, Eric prayed. “I don’t know what your plans are for me, but please don’t let it happen like this. Not in front of Noah,” he pleaded. It was then that he saw the flashing lights of the ambulance in the distance.
Paramedic Jonathan Ward and EMT Shawn Sewell with Jessamine County Emergency Medical Services arrived on the scene and immediately started assessing Eric, helping him out of the car and onto a stretcher. But when they tried to load the stretcher into the back of the ambulance, Eric balked. He wasn’t leaving until he knew Noah was in good hands.
Jessamine County Deputy Sheriff Joshua Fite soon pulled up to the scene. The EMS dispatcher had alerted the sheriff’s department in order to help find Eric’s car in case he had been mistaken about the location. Deputy Fite, who had also been told that a child was on the scene, ran to Eric on the stretcher and started asking him questions about Noah and who was on the way to pick him up. Later, after Eric was loaded into the back of the ambulance, Deputy Brian Carpenter arrived to help, and Deputy Fite was able to assure the anxious dad that Noah was OK and not upset.
“I was satisfied that he (Deputy Fite) really had my child’s best interest in mind,” Eric said. “I felt better about leaving then.” Eric didn’t know it then, but his dad arrived just before the ambulance left.
I think the author of this article did a great job, but she didn’t quite convey my appreciation for those sheriff’s deputies, especially Joshua Fight. I know now that the EMT’s were only trying to do their job, but I was beyond upset that they were trying to load me in that ambulance to leave. I just kept saying “I’m not leaving my son sitting in that car on the side of the road.” When deputy Fite arrived he first went to the car, then sprinted to where I was. He asked ask the right questions about Noah, when he found out my dad was on the way he even thought to ask what Noah called my dad so he could comfort him better. After all Noah would have no clue who grandpa or granddad was, but knowing “papa” was coming would be a comfort. He then went to be with Noah. As they loaded me in and were about to shut the door on the ambulance, the deputy again sprinted back to me, he just wanted to reassure me that Noah was fine and was currently standing on the front seat of the cruiser taking into the p.a. microphone they had turned on for him:-).
I was told later that my dad, in true fashion, had the quote of the night… as he got to the deputy’s car his first words were “Noah I can’t believe you are only 2 years old and Papa is already having to come get you out of jail.”
When he was asked if he had a hospital preference, Eric told the EMS personnel to take him to Central Baptist (now Baptist Health Lexington) “because I knew it had a good reputation as a heart hospital.”
While Shaun Sewell maneuvered through traffic, Jonathan Ward ran a 12-lead EKG, a test that monitors the electrical conduction system of the heart. He also started Eric on oxygen to help him breathe, and gave him aspirin and nitroglycerine as well as morphine to help ease the pain. Once they arrived at the Emergency Department, Eric was rolled straight to the hospital’s cardiac catheterization lab.
The crucial time period from when a heart attack patient arrives at the Emergency Department until he or she is in the cardiac catheterization lab and an interventional cardiologist is performing angioplasty (inflating a balloon inside a blocked artery in order to open it) is called “door-to-balloon” time. The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association recommend a door-to- balloon time of less than 60 minutes for heart attack patients coming directly to the hospital. Eric’s door-to-balloon time that night was 34 minutes.
Interventional cardiologist Dr. Hal Skinner found a total of five blockages in arteries in Eric’s heart. Two areas were 100 percent blocked and required drug-eluting stents to open the vessels that night. The other three blockages were less severe and were opened with stents in a scheduled catheterization procedure on Nov. 29.
“I couldn’t have asked for better care,” Eric said of his two-night hospital stay. “Everybody in the cath lab, in the telemetry unit, and Environmental Services were just great. It seemed like everybody was invested in me. I felt like everybody enjoyed their job and that they were truly there to help.”
Eric is slim and has watched his diet carefully since being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes a few years ago. He hasn’t even hit 40 yet, so it was tough for friends to believe he had had a heart attack. “You’re too young” was a common reaction.
But Eric also has a family history of heart disease that played a significant role in his own incident. His mother, as well as her eight brothers and sisters each had heart attacks in their 50s. Three of his cousins on that side of the family had heart attacks in their 30s.
Because of his history, Eric was already taking a cholesterol-lowering medication at the time of his heart attack, a preventative measure advised by his family physician. But there was one crucial key to fighting off heart disease that wasn’t part of Eric’s lifestyle, and that was exercise. There’s a new stationery bike in his bedroom now that he vows to use regularly.
“We can’t do a lot about our genetic tendency toward heart disease, but we can help counteract it with at least 30 minutes of exercise each day,” said Dr. Skinner. “Exercise goes a long way in helping to prevent heart disease, and for Eric it will help keep new problems from occurring.”
Eric has now had time to reflect on his heart issues and often tells friends and family members not to ignore warning signs as he did. He also thinks about the many people who played a part in his being alive and well today.
“I realize a lot of people came to my rescue that night, from the first responders to Dr. Skinner and everyone at the hospital,” he said. “I hated the fact that Noah had to be there when all of this was going on, but in a way I believe having him there helped save my life. I know how I am, and I know that if I had been alone I would have probably tried to ‘man up’ and keep driving to try to make it home. There’s a reason he was there.”
Eric will never forget that fateful night, but he wondered if his young son would have any memory of it. He got his answer a few weeks ago when they were in the car and passed an emergency vehicle with its lights on. From the back seat, little Noah pointed and said “Daddy boo-boo.” Eric is glad to reassure his son that Daddy’s “boo- boo” is all better now.
E&N SportsCards 