An alternate Birthday, a New Life




This is a tale that had led to a new life. I call November 15, 1994 my alternate birthday

 

On November 14, 1994 about 3:00 PM I was walking and jogging around our one mile block in Wadsworth, Ohio when I felt a strange feeling in my chest.  I would not call it a pain but a feeling I had never felt before.  I knew something serious was going on but did not know what.  I was about a quarter mile from home and sat on the curb for a few minutes hoping a car would come along so I could ask the driver to take me to Wadsworth-Rittman Hospital.  When none came I slowly walked home.  Kathleen was at a funeral thus I left her a note to come to the ER to meet me.  I left the house doors open and drove to the ER for an examination. I parked at the door leaving the car in a no parking area and requested it be moved and the keys returned to me.  I refused their request to move the car myself.

 

Before resuming November 14th some background follows.    I retired on June 30, 1994 from the University of Akron.  I had not been feeling all that peppy, but could not say that I had been feeling sick. 

 

Over a relatively short period of time several unexplained brief health incidents happened. The first was shortly before I retired.  I went to lunch and drove back to the parking garage near my office.  I Richard Fall down the stairssuddenly felt very tired and actually fell asleep in the car.  I woke up and started to walk to my office.  As I took the first step down the about 15 concrete stairs I blacked out and fell head first all the way down. If the car that normally parked at the bottom of the stairs had been there I would have hit my head against the car and probably would not have survived.  As it was my head was bleeding badly and I was all scratched up.  I walked to the office checked out and then drove home.  I must say my appearance shocked several people both walking to and in the Computer Center. Yes my boss did volunteer to drive me home but I felt ok. Kathleen had been called and warned about what had happened.  She and I went to the ER and got I got patched up.  I do not remember the ER doctor even considering a heart problem.  I felt sore but fine.

 

On July 4, 1994 we went to a flower festival in Barberton, Ohio with friends.  While walking in the park all the sudden I felt strangely weak and had to sit down.  I was totally exhausted. After a while I felt better and we continued to explore the park and went to an early dinner.  All seemed well.  About three o’clock the next morning I had chest pains and went to the ER in Barberton.  They checked me out and I went home.  Of course I started going to a respected cardiologist very soon thereafter. 

 

While bicycling with our daughter Susan we rode up a steep long hill and then rode around for a while. After coming down that same hill we stopped at a stop sign I did not have the strength to stand up. She rode home, got the car and drove me home. 

 

Another instance was at a bridge tournament, in the middle of the game I had to stop for maybe 15 minutes as I did not have the strength to sit up and play.  Again after a while I felt fine.

 

In the midst of all this I was being treated by my cardiologist and had more than one heart angiograms  and one angioplasty opening 4 arteries.  I had all the blood tests, examinations stress test and other heart tests.  I was tested at Barberton Hospital, Akron General and Cleveland Clinic, the premier USA heart hospital.  Nothing special was found.

 

Three or four times I would awaken at about 3 AM with chest pains and take a trip to the ER and again little was found. 

 

In mid October we went to Northwestern University to watch Ohio State play football.  Prior to the game we stopped for lunch and I started sweating from head to toe.  It was cool, 60 or so in the restaurant. I did not have the energy to sit up so I rested my head on the table.  For 15 minutes I tried to take my pulse.  It was so weak I had a hard time finding it.  When I did I had trouble concentrating long enough to count it.  My vision was blurred at times. After 15 minutes my pulse was 48-49.  A couple of Northwestern football fans came to our table and offered to help. They even offered to take me to a local hospital even if it meant missing part of the game.  None of the Ohio State fans  came over. After another 15-20 minutes I felt fine and we walked to the football game.  Ohio State won the close game.  The next day we went to Osceola, Iowa to visit a friend from my Iowa farm days and decided to see her doctor.  He found nothing wrong but said “If you were my patient I would send you to Des Moines for a thorough examination”.

 

When we returned home I saw my family doctor and my cardiologist but they were not near as concerned as Kathleen, I and the Iowa doctor were.

 

I am mentioning all this history to show I was not unfamiliar with chest pains and other heart symptoms.  I will mention I did not at the time recognize each of the symptoms as heart problems, and neither did my doctors.  Were they heart related?

 

Now back to November 14th.

 

The Wadsworth-Rittman ER doctors examined me, all the tests, blood and EKG and pronounced me OK.  They said there were no indicators that any heart attack had occurred and released me to go home.  I refused to leave the hospital and told them there was something wrong. I was told Medicare would not pay for the stay. I offered them a credit card and said if Medicare does not pay, charge the card.  The called my doctor and he told them to let me stay as my symptoms often do not match the problem, so I was shipped off to a heart monitoring room. 

 

At 3:00 AM, it happened.  Notice, again the familiar 3:00 AM time. I had a full blown heart attack.  They called Kathleen and she rushed to the hospital, a mile fom home.  She was met in the parking lot by a nurse and given the bad news.  For about 12 minutes my blood pressure was 92/0 as the nurse gave me CPR.  I had a No Resuscitate Notice (DNR) but they did not have time to look for it.  After the 12 minutes of CPR and at least two jolts with the paddles my heart started beating on its own. Kathleen got there in time to observe part of this.  If I had gone home the night before it would have been impossible to have survived the attack.

 

A medovac helicopter was available and they flew me to Akron General Hospital where I could get more comprehensive treatment.  The Wadsworth-Rittman Hospital nurse, doctor, and the medovac helicopter doctor all told Kathleen there was little chance that I would survive the about eight minute trip to Akron, so she should be prepared.

 

She called our son Alan in Maryland and he flew in and was picked up by our great friend Richard Dickey.  Susan was out of the country.  I greeted Alan when he visited at 8:00 am.  When he visited again at 9 I had no memory of his being there at 8. This same series happened again at 10.  When he came back in at 11:00 I did remember seeing him earlier.  The doctor then sat on the bed and asked me questions.  Clinton was president but I answered Carter. I did not know what month it was or even what year.  I answered several other questions wrong until Kathleen and Alan requested no more questions as they saw my frustration trying to answer.  I saw their woory.

 

After a few more hours my memory seemed to return and I knew Clinton was president.  My doctor said it was very likely that another attack could happen and that it was very possible I would not live a year.  If I got through the year the outlook would be promissing.

 

After going home I did my own rehab.  For a few weeks I walked 3+ miles almost every day.  As soon as I got home  I wrote a simple computer program to see if my mind still worked.  I played bridge a day or so after.  One of the early tasks I did was to organize all the financial, insurance and medical information on the computer so that if I died it would be readily available. It is still up to date.

 

Several people asked me if I had an “out of body experience”.  I did not.  For the next five years on November 15th we visited the Wadsworth-Rittman Hospital bringing both our thanks and refreshments to the nurses who brought me back to life. We were told that in all their years I was the only patient who ever came back to thank them.  When we first approached the nurse’s station the CPR nurse greeted me with my name.  I could hardly believe that she remembered after a year. She was very happy to see me looking well and said she had thought about me several times during the year.

 

My unconfirmed thoughts follow:  I used to take my pulse at various odd times.  I had found even before my problems that 3 AM was the time of day when my pulse was the lowest.  It was usually in the high 40’s.  Did that make me more vulnerable? I believe that the actual heart attack was caused by a serious blood clot and perhaps the milder incidents were less severe clots. Maybe my weakness was lack of oxygen in my blood. Alas I shall never know for sure. I do know that I am now taking anti-clotting medication.

 

This is why I consider November 15, 1994 my alternate birthday.  So now on November 17, 2011 I am both 17 and 80.

Reviewed: 10 december 2011