Two Years Later and Still Here

Two years today have passed since my life changing experience with cardiac arrest. 

By God's grace alone I survived what cardiologists call the "Widow maker." 

I can assure you that I had no say whatsoever in the matter of survival because cardiac arrest strikes so fast that there is no time to think, to react or to cry out for help. Had I been driving at the time, no time to step on the brake or to even think about doing so. 

God graciously picked me up, dusted me off and set me back on this road of life.

Two years later and I am still here and grateful to God to be here. Life is truly a precious gift that should never be taken lightly. Our time here is finite; we only live as if it is not.

"And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life?"

(Matthew 6:27)

True words to live by but at times impossible to live. Whether cubit, seconds, hours, days, weeks, years, anxiety does nothing to add time to one's life span, but some days anxiety comes nonetheless.

Air do slàinte mhath!

To your good health! 

Good health too is a gift!

Oft when good health is gone it does not return, cannot be reclaimed and is impossible to buy back.

Although I do have some permanent heart damage and atherosclerosis, I have been able to resume most activities within reason. As these two photos show, I was able to travel across Canada to visit Vancouver... and to enjoy this single glass of cold beer.

As for the beer... when I mentioned to my cardiologist that sometimes a glass of beer is the only thing that makes my occasional chest pains go away, he said, "Have the glass of beer and enjoy it."

Green Leaf Brewing Co. is found in the Lonsdale Quayside Plaza. You can't miss it. Stop in here on a warm afternoon and have a treat.

"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day."

(Matthew 6:34)

If ever a case was made against borrowing against the future, be it anxiety, worry, money or anything else, then this is it.

The Oddblock Station Agent

More about Cardiac Arrest

Far too many Americans die of cardiac arrest, and now a major new report urges a national campaign to improve survival in part by making sure more bystanders know how to help.

Every year, about 395,000 people suffer cardiac arrest in their homes or other non-hospital settings - and less than 6 percent of them survive, the Institute of Medicine estimated.

That's not the whole toll: An additional 200,000 cardiac arrests occur in hospitals every year, and even there only a quarter of patients survive, the report found.

Cardiac arrest is not a heart attack - it's worse. It means the heart abruptly stops beating, its electrical activity knocked out of rhythm.

Cardiac arrest is "the most critically ill state a human being can be in," said Dr. Robert W. Neumar of the University of Michigan, who chairs a heart association emergency care committee.


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