Today, October 24, 2024 marks four years since my SECOND Heart attack. That one darn near killed me.
Long time readers will recall that on April 19, 2019, I suffered my first, Myocardial Infarction (Heart Attack).
I was driving from my condo in North Bergen, NJ up to the Shop Rite Supermarket that Saturday morning. I pulled out of my driveway, turned right, headed north on Paterson Plank Road, to Liberty Avenue, turned right and as I came to the traffic light at Union Turnpike, I suddenly felt a strange pressure on my chest. Not pain . . . pressure. It was as if someone was kneeling on the center of my chest.
I thought to myself "What the hell is this? Kept driving.
Turned right on Union Turnpike and as I got a couple blocks farther, I suddenly got vicious pain in my lower JAW. It felt as is there was a hand inside my neck, pulling everything downward toward my chest. It HURT!
I kept driving.
A minute or so later, I started sweating. Not some light, glistening, sweat, A FLOP SWEAT. The sweat was POURING our of me. I was soaked!
Now, I was a certified Emergency Medical Technician for years on the Ridgefield Park Rescue Squad and I know all the signs of a heart attack . . . . but I DENIED it was happening to me.
I had recently been to the Doctor for a checkup. Overweight, but good blood pressure. Good lung function. No big problems. So I kept driving.
I get to Bergen Turnpike and turn right to head up to Kennedy Blvd. I turn right on Kennedy and into the parking lot of Columbia Park Shopping Center.
As I go to turn the steering wheel into the parking space, I had NO STRENGTH AT ALL. My arms wouldn't raise to turn the steering wheel! It felt like my biceps were . . . hollow. No strength.
I had to grip it at my legs and make little motions with my hands and wrists to turn the wheel to the left, to pull into the parking space.
I opened the window to get some air because I was sweating so much. I thought to myself "I'll just sit here a minute and cool down." I STILL wouldn't admit I was having a heart attack!!!!
After a couple minutes I decided I would go into the store, get what I need and go home. I opened the door and as I tried to get up and get out, the same ZERO strength that had occurred in my arms, happened to my legs. I darn near collapsed trying to get out of the car. I was grabbing the door and hanging on trying not to fall down.
At this, I decided, "That's it, I'm going home. I'm not going shopping." STILL won't admit to myself what's going on!!!!
I get myself back in the driver seat and suddenly I got light headed - like I was going to pass out. I said to myself, If I pass out, I'm gonna die right here.
I picked up the cellular phone and called my local police department. The young guy who answered knew me (or knew of me) and I said "My name is Harold Turner and I think I'm having a heart attack." The young guy started to say "Oh, Hi Mr. Turn . . . . WHAT?" So I repeated myself.
The young guy went right into professional dispatcher mode. Where are you, he asked. I told him. What kind of car are you driving? I told Him. License plate? Told him. WHERE in the parking lot are you? Told Him. He said "Stay on the phone with me I'm sending help. Hold on a second. " I did.
He gets back on the line and says, I'm sending help just stay on the phone with me.
I swear to God it seemed like LESS THAN ONE MINUTE before I could hear sirens wailing a few blocks away. I thought to myself "They're coming . . . . for me."
You know, most of us, especially those who live in Urban areas, hear sirens all the time. Let me tell ya, it's a real eye-opener when you realize they're coming for YOU.
I knew I was in trouble. Very quickly, I could see the ambulance flashing lights in the parking lot. I tried to get out of the car to flag them down. They came over to where I was an said "Mr. Turner?" Yes. The one guy tells the other, stretcher. Now! I must have looked like death.
I get on the stretcher, they put me in the back of the ambulance and away we go; Lights and Sirens toward Christ Hospital in Jersey City. I was born there.
The Ambulance guys take my blood pressure and ask me "Mr. Turner, what do you take for your high blood pressure?" I answered, I don't have high blood pressure." He responded "Your pressure is 210 over 110." I thought to myself "Holy shit, that's not even possible." I told him "That's not possible, I don't have high blood pressure. It was 120 over 80 three months ago at the Doctor's Office. Take it again."
He did.
It was!!!!!
Now, I know I'm in real trouble. As an EMT, I know that when heart arteries are blocked, the body will increase the blood pressure to try to force blood past the blockage because part of the heart is starving for blood. I knew this was now bad.
We get to Christ Hospital, they wheel me in, and WHAM, the whole staff was all over me. BP cuffs, stethoscope's, EKG patches and wires being applied to my chest, a portable X-ray machine, vials of blood being drawn from my arm. It was like "Holy crow, these people are good!"
Doc tells me I'm being admitted. He says There's something wrong with your heart. We're going to admit you until we can get in there and find out what's going on.
Long story short, I had to undergo a Cardiac Catheterization, where they put the camera into an artery at my wrist, and looked at the heart from inside. I had three, possibly four, badly clogged heart arteries. But my clogs were not small and round, my clogs ran the entire length of my coronary arteries. I needed open heart surgery and they don't do that at Christ Hospital.
My regular medical doctor is a guy named Harvey Gross. He's been my Doctor for about , oh, I'd say since about 1984. He's got privileges at Englewood Hospital so I told this to the Docs at Christ Hospital to see if I could go to Englewood. A few minutes later, Doc came back: Yes, they do open heart surgery, yes, they have a bed available and yes, they take your insurance. We're calling an ambulance to transport you up there now.
I got the open heart surgery; 4 bypasses.
Took about 6 months to get back to normal.
Seventeen months later, (four years ago TODAY) WHAM, I get the exact same crushing chest feeling - again. Only this time, I knew exactly, precisely what it really was. I didn't wait.
I told my wife and son what was happening and my son drove me to Englewood hospital. I was admitted and brought right into the Cardiac Cath Lab. They go in through my groin and find that two of the four bypasses are CLOGGED WITH BLOOD CLOTS. I am right back into myocardial infarction . . . . AGAIN.
There was a big piece of plaque blocking the entrance to my left circumflex artery, which was why that artery had the bypass, but with that bypass now clogged by Blood clots, I was in life-threatening trouble. They had to slide a small stent underneath the glob of plaque blocking the entrance of that artery, then inflate the stent to physically lift out of the way, the plaque that was blocking the artery entrance. They did. The artery flow was re-established.
But my heart had been deprived of oxygen for enough time that it went into . . . .heart failure.
It was pumping, but it was so starved of oxygen, for so long, it simply couldn't contract enough to pump sufficient blood.
Because it wasn't pumping hard enough, the normal water that exists in all our lungs, to keep the lungs lubricated and flexible, starting backing up and accumulating in my lungs.
I suddenly found that trying to take a breath, I could only get maybe half a breath. And that was worsening by the second. I could take-in less and less air. My lungs simply would not inflate anymore - because they had water in them.
I told the Doc "I can't breathe." They call for the "Fast Response Team." A whole slew of other Doctors start filing into the cardiac cath. lab.
This goes on for another few minutes and then . . . . I felt it. I had never felt it before, but I KNEW what it was:
Death.
It started at my toes and my fingertips. It was rapidly rising up my legs and up my arms. DEATH.
I told the Doc "Doc, I'm not making it." He replied "I see that."
While all this was going on, I was holding a pee, and I had been holding it for about an hour. I had to pee like a racehorse.
I told the doc "I have to pee. Badly!"
The next thing I feel is a warm hand on my junk; a nurse got a urine bottle and put me into it, and told me go ahead, pee.
I did.
As I relieved myself, and exhaled a long, slow exhale which relaxed me, the very next attempt I made to breathe, worked fine! I could breathe again!
I told the Doc, I CAN BREATHE!
The Doc behind me, I don't know who he was, said "Vagus Nerve." All the other Docs nodded in agreement.
Apparently, the Vagus Nerve is a sort of central nervous system super-highway. And when a person is in a lot of pain, and under a lot of stress, the nervous system super highway can get a sort of traffic jam. It sends the signals to beat the heart and to breathe, but the signals either are delayed, or they come through less than normal.
When I peed, and relaxed, it cleared the traffic jam on the Vagus nerve. My heart started beating normally, probably because it was getting enough blood. The proper beating of my heart removed the excess water from the lungs almost immediately, and therefore my lungs could inflate, and did.
I would be in the hospital for about a week after that second heart attack. All of which took place, four years ago - today.
While I have your attention, I want to point out that my Doctor, Harvey Gross, is as Jewish as they come. A spectacular man, and spectacular Doctor. I know his wife, Beth, and have met their son, Michael. Wonderful, caring, dedicated people.
The Chief of Thoracic Surgery at Englewood Hospital who performed the open heart surgery on me, which saved my life, is Adam Arnofsky. A Jewish man. Terse bedside manner, but WOW, what a Surgeon! Terrific!
The Cardiologist who did the cardiac catheterization which saved my life at the second heart attack, Aaron Schwarz - another Jewish man. Utterly spectacular Doctor. Wonderful in every regard. Straight shooter - calls it as it is - but kind.
These men saved my life. Twice.
I say this with gratitude and respect.
Often, when I criticize the state of Israel for things it does, people think I hate Jews. I don't. I owe three of them, my very life.
I thank Almighty God for these men. They are talented, skilled, men, who dedicated literally YEARS of their lives, to learn the skills they used to save me and countless other people.
I have deep and abiding respect, with loads of appreciation for these men.
I want all of you know: Jews, saved my life - twice. I am forever grateful.
