Tom K: Surviving a Heart Attack at Age 34
Read Tom’s story about how he survived a heart attack in his thirties and credits a tough lifestyle change afterwards for his long-term health today. He quit smoking.
My father and I were roofing his shop the summer of 1996, after I had turned 34 years old. A thunderstorm was getting too close for comfort, so we put things away. While my dad went on into the house, I smoked a cigarette on the back porch. After I finished the cigarette, I went in and sat down in my recliner without a care and literally passed out. When I came to, I realized I had vomited on myself which stunned all of us. I showered and laid down because I felt very tired. My mother checked on me and I told her my chest felt very heavy. She loaded me in the car because she recognized my symptoms.
She lost her father because of his heart issues when he was in his 50's. I would have suffered more heart damage or perished if it wasn't for my mother because I would not have believed that at age 34, I could be having a heart attack. My maternal grandfather had his first heart attack in his 40's and my paternal grandfather had his heart attacks in his 60's.
When we got to our local hospital, they confirmed that I was having a heart attack and called the closest heart hospital, some one-hundred miles away and in a neighboring state. It took an hour for the helicopter to reach us and an hour to fly me back and straight to emergency surgery. After the surgery they had me strapped to the bed and would not even let me roll over, much less get out of bed for three days. I REALLY needed to get outside for a smoke, so I asked my doctor when I could get outside.
He told me my heart attack was caused by plaque buildup and the nicotine was contributing to the constriction of the artery around the backside of my heart. By the time I finally was able to leave that hospital room, I swore off nicotine in any form. I drove a truck for a living, so I was unsupervised on whether I was honest or not. I cannot say it was easy by any means by doing the cold turkey method, but I would only be hurting myself if I cheated. I don't remember how long it took -- but eventually burning tobacco started smelling like dirty old socks.
About eight years later, I had another angiogram to clear me for a back surgery. They discovered the artery they had ballooned without a stent was 100% closed and I was growing a natural bypass from the front side of my heart. I don't know the statistics of this phenomenon happening, but I bet my odds were much greater by quitting tobacco. Now twenty-five years and around twenty-four unrelated surgeries later, I know quitting tobacco has extended my life.