Have A Heart Attack To Save Your Life

I had just read an email my sister forwarded me from her daughter who is studying in Rome, when she called and said, “Everyone is alright.” “I guess so,” I said, “Sounds like she is having a great time.” We both were speaking of two entirely different things…but hadn’t realized it just yet. Then, she said this. “Dad is in the hospital, he had a heart attack.” Well, that focuses your attention.


Believe it or not, there are certain things that continue to amaze me. For instance, “missionaries” who are stunned that taking a busload of children out of their home country is illegal, the fact that you can still buy something called “Spotted Dick” at the grocery store and the wonderment of modern medicine.

The next day they threaded a catheter up through a vein in dad’s leg into his heart then slid a medicated stent into place. It would seem that one in a thousand people would be able to even survive this when in fact the opposite is true. It’s so easy you don’t even have the benefit of anesthesia. “Really Doc, up through my groin, huh? All the way to my fucking heart…while I’m awake. Are you out of your mind?” When the surgeon came to talk to us when my dad’s procedure was over, he had all the stress of a man who looked liked he had hung a picture or spackled a whole in some drywall. Within forty-eight hours, my dad had a heart attack and walked out of the hospital, by and large, fixed. Impressive. I’ve had electrical problems with my car that have taken longer to fix.

I’m not sophisticated enough to figure out the healthcare system and its problems, I’m not sure how fast or slow you get through the ER in Canada and I’m still puzzled by how the hell the British ever came up with “Spotted Dick”…although I know it is a dessert. I do know medicated stents are the latest and greatest invention of non-invasive heart care (email me for the cool description the heart doc gave me on these suckers), although I still can’t believe you start at the leg. Oh, and if you want to bypass the crowds in the ER, tell them you have chest pains.

(The photo above is of the aforementioned stent....it's not a fish or other aquatic animal.)