So there I am in the Emergency Room laid out on a table with about four people around me checking vital signs and monitoring displays EKG’s, and blood pressure.
The interesting part of the experience is that most of the ER staff knew who I was. I have spoken to most of them on the phone at one time or another or they had heard me on radio commercials over the past 10 years. From the data they were gathering they knew I was not messing around. The Doctor wanted to call my wife to inform her of the situation. Reality check, that struck a cord of fear. I was sure I was going to be fine but I reluctantly gave the number. I didn’t want to worry her before I knew what was going on. All I could think of were scenes from TV shows like E.R. Gray’s Anatomy where a doctor is informing a loved one of a tragedy. I was a little relieved when she didn’t answer the phone. They were able to contact my father at our store in Canton and he went and picked up my wife and broke the news to her.
The EKG of my heart rhythm was so erratic the attending physician told me that he believed I had a heart attack. He immediately gave me aspirin to take.
I was baffled. “But I don’t have any stress!” I actually responded. I don’t smoke, I don’t consume illegal drugs, I don’t have elevated cholesterol and my family history is favorable. I do drink the occasional alcoholic beverage and was about 15 pounds over the BMI (body mass index). Have you looked at that BMI chart? Besides being somewhat sedentary in the exercise arena I had no risk factors for heart disease, let alone heart attack risk. Because the doctor feared a heart attack, he wanted to transfer me to Aultman Hospital in Canton, Ohio, about 35 minutes north. They had just opened a state of the art heart center. He informed me that he had summoned a helicopter and they were going to fly me there to save time. This of course was not really something I wanted to hear. Would you? Was it that bad? I have heard stories about people being life flighted before and I knew that the price tag was at least $5k (turns out it was $8K). The doctor insisted, time is of the essence he informed me. The rest of my experience was very efficient and a tribute to our health care professionals.
The paramedics from the helicopter service professionally and efficiently hooked me up to their portable heart monitors and an IV and off we went. Once I was in the chopper all I could think about was my wife and my 4 year old son. I just wanted to see him and hold him. It really upset me. What if I did die? I was not in any pain but I was just thinking about what things would be like for him if I didn’t make it out of this. My wife would be alone and my son would be without a father. Wouldn’t you know it too I had planned on getting additional life insurance a few weeks earlier and just never got around to making the call. The next thing I knew we were landing on the roof helipad at Aultman Hospital in Canton.
To be continued…
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