A Second Chance at Life - Part Two

Part two of Tauna and Jim's saga:

           While sitting in the garage, Jim realized just how bad he was feeling and even mentioned it to his friend whom he was on the phone with. He couldn’t seem to put his finger on what the problem was, since he had never felt this way before. He went in the house and watched a little TV thinking he might start feeling a little better. He smoked a cigarette and when he was done with it looked down at his hands and realized he could not feel his fingers. He had so much pain in his chest that he laid across the ottoman to provide pressure but that didn’t help. He decided to go to bed and see if sleep would help, but since there was no feeling in his hands, thought it better to call his mother who lived next door. When she got there she asked him if he felt like he needed to go to the hospital, which he replied, “I think you should call an ambulance”.

When the ambulance and fire truck from Sherman arrived, their first impression was that he was having indigestion issues. They still put him on a stretcher as a precaution, which is when he began to throw up. The paramedics took his stats and realized his condition was much more severe than they first anticipated. He was in heart failure. He was dying. His next few days of recollection are fuzzy in places and vivid in others, but he does know on thing for sure -the reality of everything was the scariest thing he had ever been through.

Jim vaguely recalls the ambulance getting lost on the way to the hospital and the radio communications making arrangements for his arrival. He remembers everyone looking worried which made him worry even more. They immediately admitted him and performed a heart catherization. He remembers feeling something inside moving up his leg and through his chest and the pain he felt. It was the worst feeling he had ever experienced. He remembers waking up to a seriousness that filled the room. He was restless, in a lot of pain but unable to move for chance of reopening his incision. He had made it through surgery (implanting two stints in his heart) but far from okay. The thing is, Jim had been having a heart attack for about the last three days. Because of the lack of knowledge regarding the early signs of a heart attack, this delayed any treatment, which in turn caused about a third of his heart muscle to die. The doctors told us for the first 24 hours that it would be a miracle if Jim pulled through and walked out of the hospital. Jim had a massive coronary, congestive heart failure and was in critical condition.

To be continued...