In 2006, I was flying from from Chicago to San Francisco and sitting in an aisle seat. There was a gentleman sitting across from me who appeared to be in his late 60s or early 70s. He was sitting next a woman who I imagined and later learned was his wife.
About 30 minutes into the flight he began to stand up at his seat with one foot in the aisle. He would stand for a few minutes and then sit down again, then stand, then sit, and finally he just stood at his seat. I didn’t think too much about it at the time but certainly noticed it because it was unusual.
About an hour into the flight, he collapsed forward into the aisle passing out cold.
It dawned on me instantly what might have happened. Because of my own experience, thought that he might be having a heart attack. His standing up and down at his seat had been an attempt to change his body position to make the pain in his chest go away. Because I was closest to him and had had my eye on him I yelled immediately for a doctor. No doctor came forward immediately, but soon a nurse practitioner and a medical resident began to try to resuscitate him.
His wife was in shock not knowing what to do with herself. The captain soon announced we’d be making an emergency stop in Denver. I realized that the only thing I might help with before the emergency landing was to talk to his wife because she would soon be leaving the plane with him and perhaps someone was waiting at the airport to meet them. Perhaps they had luggage that needed to be secured. It turned out this couple was returning home from a 3 week stay in Europe celebrating an important wedding anniversary. I can’t now recall the exact number of years they had been married, but it was some important round number like the 40th or 50th. While she was talking, I took quick glances toward the gentleman’s face that I happened to have a perfect angle to see. It was clear to me that without some kind of extremely serious intervention or a miracle, this gentleman was gone.
Fortunately, his wife wasn’t sitting at an angle from which she might see his face. I wondered about whether she might want to engage those trying to resuscitate him, but she made no move to do that. She was frozen in shock.
She explained that her husband had recently complained about chest pains in the evenings in Europe but that, since they were eating meals they were unaccustomed to, he had chalked it up to indigestion. She said he had always been in perfect health and exercised regularly through participation on sports teams.
After landing in Denver, I temporarily exited the plane with the wife while the paramedics worked on the gentleman outside the door. I could tell from their faces that they saw no hope. I called their son and left a message to let him know there was an issue and that the luggage should still be picked up. Upon arriving in San Francisco he had left a message for me that he wanted to meet me at baggage claim. He had already heard from his mother by that time and, in fact, his father had died. I tried as best I could to describe what I saw happen to his father. (My description was not as coldly descriptive as my account here.) He was heartbroken and it was heartbreaking.
Some might say that this gentleman had little warning of the heart attack. In fact, however, I think he did have warning, at least for a few days, and even on the plane before he collapsed it wasn’t too late to take action to keep himself alive.
The problem was that he ignored his symptoms.
I was clear about this even at the time. However, I didn’t tell the son then because I thought it would be cruel to do so at that moment.
The experience had a significant impact on my thinking: For the first and only time, I witnessed a death from a disease that I have and an event which I myself have experienced (although my heart attack was minor). It convinced me–if I needed more convincing–that quick and appropriate mediating action, especially in settings where the ideal emergency room trip isn’t possible, is an important thing to think about before a crisis occurs.
November 4th, 2007 at 8:35 am
This reminds of me an alarming description I read on a blog recently of what seems to be someone suffering from a heart condition with all the warning signs of a heart attack and yet he’s refusing to see a doctor. The guy’s only 51! I have left a comment telling him he needs to go see a heart doctor immediately.
Could I ask anyone reading this to leave a comment on his blog asking him to seek help? Thank you!
Here’s the link.
November 4th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
I think too as some of us see a doc and they do an ecg and say you didn’t have a heart attack, its JUST stress, then you feel foolish to go back again. We need lots of education about going and forgetting that old way we have dealt with it, and docs not degrading patients for going when its JUST stress, and defribs etc in public places so someone can get help. We all need to keep up our CPR and we don’t.I bet that will remain in your minds eye forever.
November 5th, 2007 at 7:03 am
Echoing what gc said. A good friend went in with chest pains and was told “probably indigestion” but it was suggested he do a stress test “in the next few weeks.” Three days later he died. Age 42. Don’t feel foolish. Insist.
November 5th, 2007 at 10:46 am
Robin:
I think the story you recount is a tragic, yet I’ll bet common, one.
I think the lesson of your story is similar to the story I tell in this thread, namely, that a lot of people die just because they ignore whatever heart related symptoms they know they have.
Sometime soon at this blog, I’m going to tell my own cardiac events story. I believe the lesson of my story is that the odds of dying from “sudden heart attack” are dramatically reduced if you don’t ignore your own symptoms.
November 13th, 2007 at 12:41 am
I think every one of us who has heart attack symtoms puts off going to the doctors or hospital to some extent, although the reasons will vary from individual to individual.
I am sure a lot of people ignore the early symptoms because they block out even the possibilty of a heart attack, so they attribute the symptoms to something else rather than face a life threaening situation.
April 21st, 2008 at 9:54 am
Good story. Quality reading. Thank’s
November 26th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
None…
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