I am a heart attack survivor because I am one of The Lucky Ones! I had just returned home form a 13 day work trip assisting with storm restorations in New Jersey and it's a day I will never forget. It was Thursday, Nov. 19, 2020 at 1:37am when I woke out of a dead sleep in the most excruciating pain I have ever experienced. I was grabing my chest, sweating profusely, could breath nor talk. Luckily for me, my wife is not a sound sleeper so she had woken up because of my sudden movements. She asked if everything was okay and once I shook my head no she immediately knew something was wrong. She asked if I needed an ambulance and all I could do was shake my head yes. She called 911 and the fire department arrived shortly thereafter. They completed their assessment and said it was probably just a virus and that she should  take me to the doctor in the morning. Becasue my wife knows me and that if I asked her to call an ambulance then something is seriously worng. she asked them if they would transport me to the hospital and they said no that they didn't see any reason for me to go. At this point, my wife is furious and to ld them if they weren't going to help them to just leave. Luckily, our son was still living at home at the time and by know was fully aware of what was going on. My wife had him pull the car up to the front door and they loaded me in so she could take me to the hospital herself. What should've been a 15 minute drive to the hospital only took about 8 minutes. She stopped a the entrance to get me inside and before she came back in from parking the car, they already had me in triage, diagnosed my heart attack and had the cardiologist on his way. I remember hearing the doctor say "Mr. Throne, you are one of The Lucky Ones" but not fully understanding just what he meant at that particular moment. Once the procedure was completed and I was resting comfortably in my room, the cardiologist came to speak to me and my wife. He told us that they found three blood clots less than an inch from my heart and that if one had let loose I would've been dead before I hit the ground. The crazy part of all this is that my particular heart attack is commonly know as the "widow maker" but in my case, it actually saved my life. There are however a couple other factors that contributed to making me one of The Lucky Ones. First, if my work had decided to keed us in New Jersey for one more day,I would've been in my hotel room by myself unable to ask for help. Second, if the group would've taken just a little longer getting home, I would've been driving by myself on the turnpike. And finally, if all the times that I told my wife "You know, I could go tomorrow and be happy because I've lived a full life, I got to see my kids grow up, and I got to see my granddaughter be born" would've come true, I wouldn't be here to see the miracle that is my granddaughter grow up.

 

The last thing I want to say about my experience is that I had no prior warning signs and that there is no histoy of heart disease in my family. This truly can happen to anyone at anytime so please don't ignore any potential waring signs.