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…
This article appears in Dec 10-16, 2009.
