“QUADRUPLE WHAT?”

About 15 years ago I had a rude awakening in the middle of the night. I was awakened by the loud and fast beating of my heart as I slept. I immediately thought that the pesticide I had used earlier in the day had caused this reaction. After a bit I decided to get to the hospital, so I scooped up my 5 year old daughter and took her to a friends’ house so I wouldn’t have to worry about her or bring her along. When I got to the Emergency room there were the usual results of fights and drugs waiting for the doctor to see them. I checked in with the desk and told them what was going on and I took a seat.

I was being cautious because my father had died of a massive heart attack at the age of 46 and at that time I was 48, knowing full well that heart disease is primarily hereditary I kept constant tabs on my blood pressure and had been taking High Blood Pressure pills for a while. I was also fortunate to have just recently been insured. I got a full tilt policy for my health. I was not in great shape but I had ridden bikes with my daughter for a couple of hours earlier in the day and felt pretty good.

I was getting kind of antsy in the waiting room and even thought about going home when they came and got me. They told me I should have had someone else drive me to the hospital and I told them only my 5 year old was with me. Then I should have called an ambulance. Yeah right. Well they gave me a shot of digoxin and now my heart was beating normally. So I thought I could go home now. They said no that I had to go through some test to find out why this arrhythmia had occurred. That means an irregular heart beat. They called it atrial fibrillation.

For the next 24 hours they gave me all kinds of tests. When I finally saw the cardiologist he said the tests were inconclusive. What the hell does that mean? He explained that one more test would conclusively tell them what they needed to know. Which was? An Angiogram. I asked why hadn’t they done one yet and he explained it was an invasive test and they were thinking they could tell without it. Well they couldn’t. I then told him if they didn’t do it right away I was going home to my daughter. They immediately prepped me for the Angiogram and we proceeded to inject a dye into my artery in my right groin and filming my heart with a special kind of x-ray camera. We all sat and watched the show. Even I noticed that some arteries in my heart were squeezed off and little or no blood was getting through. The doctor then explained that “we” would have to operate immediately or risk me having a heart attack.

At that point I said enough, I want my family doctor to see this and I want a second opinion from another doctor not in this hospital while I inform my insurance company and get their go ahead. The doctor seemed shocked that I would do all those things and still be on the verge of death. I then asked him if the insurance company turns down my request will you do this operation for free? After all it is life and death, my life and death. He hemmed and hawed but basically said no. That’s what I thought I said and I would rather be dead than be your indentured servant for the rest of my life to pay you back. He abruptly left the room. I knew he wasn’t the surgeon so I wasn’t worried.

Well the rest is history, I called my mother to come and help me with my daughter and got the Insurance company to authorize the operation and then was ready to have the operation, a triple bypass. It became a quadruple after they saw another small artery needed to be fixed when they started. On my way into the operating room my daughter walked beside me, I looked at her and said “don’t ever forget your daddy” then we both started to cry. This could be the last time I would ever see her. She was only five but she knew the same thing I did, I could not say goodbye. Thankfully

I woke up about 12 hours later in intensive care with a tube down my throat that was choking me. This was the most scary and painful part of the ordeal. My ribcage was not in tact and my coughing and choking caused sever pain. I couldn’t speak so I wrote it out for the nurse, “I’m choking” finally after about 10 minutes they got permission from the doctor to remove the tube. Relief.

I was on a heart lung machine for a good 10 hours and when I recovered I could really tell. I also read later that most patients that are on those machines that long suffer irreparable brain damage, loss of memory etc.. It was true I could tell my mind was not as sharp as it was but I was alive and kicking. They did to me what would have saved my fathers life when he had his heart attack back twenty years earlier. The first few days I had incredibly vivid dreams that were so real I couldn’t distinguish them from reality. I went through 7 weeks of rehab and was in the best shape I’d been in years. Until the sternum healed up I could feel and hear the bones rubbing together when I exercised. All was well with the world.

This event was a life changing event. I looked into the face of death and lived to tell about it. The mortality rate now is less than 1% with this procedure. But I was technically dead on that table, my heart had stopped and only that machine kept me alive. I watched my daughter grow into a beautiful woman thanks to that surgery. I am doing fine and will for a long time more I hope.

By the way it took the insurance company over a year to pay and only after I threatened a law suit. And each month they raised my premiums so that I could not afford health insurance anymore. I survived until I could get Medicare and now I’m not there to take advantage of it.