The following is a chronology of events leading up to and through my recent three heart attacks in one morning:

February through March, 2006

I had been having heartburn more often than I normally do. The entire time, I was taking Papaya Enzymes to slow down the pain a bit. I tried changing my diet and nothing seemed to help. As of about the first of March, I seemed to have heartburn most of the time. On a pain level of 1 to 10, it was usually about 3 or 4.

Saturday, March 11, 2006 - approximately 6PM

Our future Son in Law Jason and I went to a Mexican restaurant in Rocklin, California to get some food to go. I was planning on taking it over to our daughter's house and eating with my family. I ordered a chicken quesadilla, something I order quite often that is pretty easy on my stomach.

When we got to our daughter 's house, we opened the bag from the restaurant. Jason got what he ordered but I was faced with two Spicy Pork Soft Tacos (somebody else's order). Quite spicy looking, I was afraid to eat them fearing that my heartburn would flare up even more. Not wanting to go back, I went ahead and had dinner anyway. About 1/2 hour later, I had the worst case of heartburn of my life! I decide to go to bed and just tough it out. About 6 hours later 3:30AM, I woke up with heartburn that was the worst I have ever had. On a scale from 1 to 10, this was about a 10. I woke Patti up, and then called 911. I knew something was terribly wrong but really not sure what it was.

The Fire Department, Police Department and an ambulance arrived in about 7 minutes. They quickly gave me some Nitroglycerin and baby aspirin and prepared to take me to Sutter Roseville Hospital. After loading me into the Ambulance, we took off for the hospital. Patti was following the ambulance in her car, the fire truck was heading back for their station. We made it about 1 1/2 miles when the ambulance pulled over, Patti stopped behind them, They called the Fire Department , a second ambulance, and the Police Department and advised them that they needed some help. The fire truck pulled next to Patti (to protect her from traffic) These are such incredible professionals! The ambulance driver got out, ran back to the rear door of the ambulance and started CPR and to administer a defibrillator. My heart had gone into a condition called VFib. They told Patti that I had become unconscious and for her to meet them at the hospital because they had to roll Code 3 to get there. She proceeded to drive to Sutter Hospital on her own.

According to the American Heart Association, Vfib is described as follows: The heart beats when electrical signals move through it. Ventricular fibrillation (ven-TRIK'u-ler fib"rih-LA'shun) ("V fib") is a condition in which the heart's electrical activity becomes disordered. When this happens, the heart's lower (pumping) chambers contract in a rapid, unsynchronized way. (The ventricles "flutter" rather than beat.) The heart pumps little or no blood. Ventricular fibrillation is very serious. Collapse and sudden cardiac death will follow in minutes unless medical help is provided immediately. If treated in time, V fib and ventricular tachycardia (ven-TRIK'u-ler tak"eh-KAR'de-ah) (extremely rapid heartbeat) can be converted into normal rhythm. This requires shocking the heart with a device called a defibrillator (de-FIB'rih-la-tor).

Patti arrived at the hospital and the ambulance, arrived with me a few minutes later. Apparently, my heart had gone into VFib a second time and the ambulance had to stop and re-administer CPR and use the defibrillator.. When I was brought into the Emergency Room, they needed to insert a tube into my nose and down into my stomach. This is apparently a difficult thing to do and especially in a hurry. On the first attempt, the 3/8" plastic tube punctured my Septum (In the back of your nose) instead of down into my throat and into the stomach. They removed the tube and reinserted it into the other side successfully, providing a way to keep my stomach clear. The right side of my nose was bleeding and the blood was going straight into my stomach. I ended up throwing up a lot of blood since it does not do well in the stomach.

In the Emergency Room, my heart went into V-Fib a third time. CPR and the Defibrillator were administered again and I apparently became more stable. After I got stabilized, I spent about 4 hours in the Emergency Room. During that time, I was given medication to prevent blood clots. My speech was garbled and so they took me in for a CAT Scan to see if I had suffered a Stroke as a side effect of the medication. I found out later that I was hooked up to 7 I.V.'s with different medications in each one.

I was then taken into the Heart Cath Lab where I was subjected to an Angiogram. Two stents were installed in my heart and Angioplasty was used on another artery. I had two blockages in the Arteries, one 95% blocked and the other 75% blocked. I was also given Angioplasty on another artery.

According to the American Heart Association, a stent is "a wire mesh tube used to prop open an artery that's recently been cleared using angioplasty". The stent is collapsed to a small diameter and put over a balloon catheter. It's then moved into the area of the blockage. When the balloon is inflated, the stent expands, locks in place and forms a scaffold. This helps keep the artery open and improves blood flow to the heart. A stent may be used along with angioplasty.

After the surgery, I was in the Intensive Care Unit for 3 days recovering and was then moved to the Telemetry area where heart patients can be monitored 24/7. My overall stay in the hospital was about 7 days. About 2 days after I arrived, a Doctor walked into my Intensive Care Unit Room and asked me if I knew who he was. I responded that I did not. He replied that he was one of the doctors that worked on me in the Emergency Room and he was glad to see that I was alive. I thanked him for doing the great work that he had and he said "I just want to make sure that you knew how close you came to dying". I replied that I had heard about all of the times that CPR and the Defibrillator were used. He said that when a patient comes in with the problem that I had, they sometimes administer Epinephrine or other drugs in order to resuscitate a patient. In my case, they had apparently tried the normal dosage and I was not responding. He and the other doctors present decided as a life and death decision to use a much higher dose than normal. It was administered where I did respond and my heart returned to a normal rhythm. His concern was that higher doses of these drugs can cause some long term problems like liver damage and he wanted to make sure that for a period of time that my blood was continually checked. If there was any damage to other organs, he advised that it could be addressed as needed in the future. He made the comment that using these higher doses is very uncommon. I am blessed that they made that decision because if they followed the normal practice, I would have died.

I am certainly indebted most of all to my wife Patti. During this time, she was a ROCK! I do have some recollection of seeing her in the Emergency Room and every time I looked at her, she was smiling. I asked Patti if I was going to be OK. She responded that I was going to be OK. I then asked her if I was going to die where she responded "No - you are not going to die". I said that I felt I was going to die on all 3 occasions. I apparently asked if I was going to die a third time where the administering doctor bent over - got very close to my face and said "No, you are not going to die!" At that point, I stopped asking. Apparently, it is common when people are in this position to ask questions like this. Your mind certainly has the capability to talk itself into death and both Patti and the doctor realized that it was important that I did not enter into that mindset. Just after the doctor told me this, I began having trouble speaking.

I will always be indebted to all of the highly qualified EMT's, Police Officers, Fire Department People, The Emergency Room Doctors, Nurses, and Technicians. These are the most gifted people who are always giving the gift of life. Without all of them, I would easily not been able to put these words on paper. My care in the Intensive Care Unit and the Telemetry Floor was incredible, with so many caring nurses, assistant nurses, and others who serve so unceasingly. I watched some nurses work 12-16 hour shifts without complaint.

As many of you know, Patti and I love the Lord and spend a lot of time working toward bringing others closer to God. It was obviously not the right time for me to depart and our work will continue. But as an additional part to this ministry, I will now be talking to many people about the signs of Heart Disease. During my Heart Attacks, I felt no pain in my arm or jaw, two very common symptoms. If I had listened to my head using the knowledge that I have learn over the past 52 years of my life, I would have not called the EMT's and would have assumed that this was just a really bad case of heartburn again. But that night, something came up from my "Spirit" letting me know that a call to 911 was appropriate and necessary. At the time I called, I had not suffered a Heart Attack yet. It was during the critical time when I was being transported that it all unraveled. If I had been transported in our personal automobile, I would have certainly died.

As a part of my recovery, I will be telling my story to as many people as possible, talking about how you can be proactive and confirm the condition of your heart ahead of time. There are simple tests that can be performed by your local cardiologist to make sure you are not at risk. Had I taken the time to have this test performed, I could have circumvented all of this.

 I began to consider the affects of the soft tacos that I ate on Saturday night. I considered what would have happened if I had what I ordered, the chicken quesadilla or no food at all that night. It became clear to me that as a result of the indigestion, I eventually called 911. If I had eaten something different or not eaten at all, it is very apparent that I could easily have died in my sleep. When I posed this possibility to my Primary Cardiologist, he said that it was a distinct possibility that I would had died in my sleep if I hadn't eaten those tacos. I was blessed by the mistake made by the restaurant  that night and I really owe my life to them. I will be returning for another dinner soon because they serve great food and service but unfortunately, I don't think I will be ordering pork soft tacos again.

After interviewing many cardiologists since that time, I have discovered that the only way to detect a blocked artery in your heart is through a test called a Thallium or Nuclear Treadmill Test. In this test, you walk on a treadmill until you get to your maximum heart rate (about 140 beats per minute for a 40 year old). When you reach the maximum rate, the doctor injects a dye into an I.V., and then you are simply placed under a scanner for about 15 minutes. As the dye travels through your blood system, the scanner shows the condition of all of the arteries.

The bottom line is that if you have never had this test and if you are over 40 years old, you could be suffering from a blockage and be totally unaware of your condition as I was. One of the primary indicators to an impending heart attack is heartburn. If I had known this fact and if I had gone through this test earlier, it would have fully prevented my problem ahead of time.

The current belief of most Cardiologist is that if you have heartburn and you have not eaten for 6 hours, you need to be checked immediately. This has turned out to be life saving information for many people.