Surviving a Heart Attack
Licensed To Live
In 1996 at the age of 36 I had a major (myocardial Infarction) heart attack. I never thought for one moment that anything like this could ever happen to me especially since I was a non smoker, a non drinker and enjoyed cycling and gym for many years.
On my way to the hospital, I really believed this was going to be my last day on earth, in my agonizing pain; I managed to ‘grunt ‘out a few words to Mareli my wife, “I’m not going to make it, I’m going to die…I love you, why are they driving so slowly?”
The emergency vehicle seemed to be stopping at all the red lights; they probably thought it wasn’t urgent enough for speeding through town, let alone switching on the siren.
It was scary, very scary; I would be lying if I said that I didn’t have any fear of dying. Although a child of God since 1979 and a minister for five years, I was not prepared to die! I wasn’t prepared for this. (Nothing ever really prepares you for death, after all I’m still young and it only happens to other people)
After arriving at the emergency room of the hospital, I was taken into one of the cubicles where I was examined and told that my heart was beating too fast and they would have to slow it down (the heart is trying to compensate for the damage that is being caused to other parts of the heart, due to lack of oxygen)
After stabilizing me they had me transferred to the ICU, where I remained for one week. During this time they carried out a catheterization (Angiogram1) in an attempt to see where the blockage had occurred and what damage had been caused.
The result of the Angiogram showed significant damage to the right side of the heart muscle, as well as three occlusions of 80%, 60% and 20% to my arteries (cholesterol).
I was very fortunate and thankful to be alive; they scheduled me for Balloon Angioplasty2 and inserted two stents into the blocked arteries. In 1999 I went back for another stent to be inserted.
Surviving a major heart attack is no small feat, and it presents you with all sorts of challenges for your life thereafter, possible diet change, regular exercise, and stress management.
But the most significant challenge after a heart attack is within the mind, it requires a very positive, focused and disciplined thought life.
Now after thirteen years of living with heart disease and everyday heart arrhythmias, not only has my life style changed, but so has my thought life. There’s a shift in ones priorities, goals, methods, objectives and attitudes towards life, people, circumstances and situations.
As strange as this may seem to some people, my heart attack was the most influential event, in bringing about the liberation of my mind and spirit. Living with inner peace, focus and security, is the most valuable asset one can have in today’s world. Every day for me is like the first day of the rest of my life.
I have learned that bad things do happen to good people, that good people get sick and die, the innocent are unjustly accused, or the moral person degraded and broken down, and, yes, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.
But the key to living a peaceful and secure life, in a neurotic and crazy world, lays within one’s own heart, and how we respond to all of life’s challenges will greatly depend upon what’s in that heart. The way we act in any given situation, will be in direct alignment of how we think about and perceive ourselves and others.
Sometimes, more than we care to admit, it takes something tragic and scary, to bring us to a point of understanding the true meaning of self and all that we are, it exposes that which means so much to us, and that which is insignificant.
1 An angiogram (also known as an arteriogram) is an x-ray examination of your arteries (blood vessels). A specially trained doctor, known as an Interventional Radiologist, performs this x-ray procedure. During the angiogram, a catheter (a small tube) is placed into an artery in your groin or arm. Contrast (x-ray dye) is injected and pictures of the blood vessel of interest are taken.
2 In a balloon angioplasty, a wire is inserted into a large artery in the leg or arm and threaded to the area that is blocked. Then a balloon catheter is guided up the wire and positioned in the blocked area. The balloon is then inflated to expand the walls of the artery and relieve the blockage. In some cases, a simple balloon angioplasty isn’t sufficient, for example if the walls of the artery are not strong enough to hold the shape effected by the inflated balloon. In this case, the angioplasty would also position a stent, a wire mesh that inflates with the balloon, but is left behind when the balloon is withdrawn to support the artery walls.
