Two months before my 43rd birthday, I had my first heart attack. I was lucky...I was already in the emergency room after my wife had a seizure. Thinking it was only anxiety over my wife, I went to the nurses counter saying I'm hurting and rubbing my chest. The next thing I knew I was in my own emergency room, given Nitro, told I am having a massive MI, and scheduled for emergency service in the cath lab. My wife was told later that it was a good thing I was already at the hospital because the blockage I had was called the widow maker.

Two months later, a few weeks after my 43rd birthday, I had a second heart attack. This was caused by blockage found during the first heart attack that was believed to be a difficult fix and they decided to try and reduce the blockage with medication. This time they fixed this blockage with two more stints to go with the one I got just a couple of months before.

Fast forward another 6 months and I had another episode during a stress test. My blood pressure dropped to dangerously low levels during the test. During an angiogram, they found a 90% blockage in my lower Aorta where it biforcates to form the Femoral Arteries. There is a symptom I had and did not know about called Claudication. Everyone should be aware of this symptom. It causes extreme pain in the calf muscles while exercising or walking. I could not walk more than a block or two without stopping to rest. The pain is caused by lack of oxygen to the muscle and the pain receeds when you rest to let the oxygen level in your blood to catch-up. They later did an Aorta biforcation by-pass, and ever since then I've been feeling great and able to walk miles pain free.

I Walk because thanks to the research by the American Heart Association, I CAN. Without the modern medicine created by their research, i would have been dead or crippled over 20 years ago. Now, I am 66 years old and alive and well, ready to walk the distance of the Heart Walk. Help me reach my goal today.​