Family Heart

Later this week will mark 17 years since that phone call woke me at 1am. It was my mother. She said, “I’m at the hospital. Your father died.” It was a shock. He was 74 years old. He had been retired for over 15 years. He rode an exercise bike every morning. Watched his weight and ate healthy. He was even under the care of a cardiologist for years. He had a minor event back in the early 1980s. He was checked out at the time, and started to see the doctor on a regular basis. All his tests and checkups were good. When I finally got to my mother’s house, two hours away, I asked the obvious question. What happened? She said they went to bed about 11pm after my father watched the Mets game. Everything was fine. About an hour later, he woke up with a pain in his back. She said he thought maybe he twisted it in his sleep. He went into the bathroom. He then said she should call an ambulance. She helped him get some pants on, and she led him downstairs to the kitchen to wait for the ambulance. He put his head down on the table, and passed out.

The ambulance arrived in minutes. She rode with him to the hospital. They took him in. She waited. The doctor came out a short time later to tell her he was gone. It was over in less than two hours. She opted not to have an autopsy performed, and the death was attributed to natural causes. There was a history of early deaths and heart attacks in his family. His father died at 50 after a couple of heart attacks. Two brothers and a sister all died between 59 and 63 years old. But, as far as I know, there were no autopsies performed.

A few months ago, we had dinner with one of my cousins. We had reconnected after years of separation. He told me that he and his brother were diagnosed with Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms. It’s a bulging of the aorta, the main artery to the heart. Imagine a bubble on a bicycle tire. If it gets too big, it pops. There are no symptoms or pain, until it’s too late. My cousins are being montitored. You can live with the condition for years. If the aneurysm grows over about 5 centimeters, doctors have to go in repair the bulge with a synthetic tube. He told me the condition rans in families. The symptoms were sudden, sharp back pain, no warning, and no time for doctors to save the patient. I immediately thought of my father.

The aneurysm can be detected with a simple ultrasound. I recently had one performed, and everything was normal. My father never mentioned if he had one. I told my sons that they should be checked. Then several weeks ago, my cousin texted me to tell me another cousin was going in for surgery to correct an aortic aneurysm. It was successful, and he’s recovering.

There is more awareness now then ever before about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. Eating properly, exercising, getting annual physicals, and knowing your family history. Sometimes the secret to life is buried in the beating of your family heart. We should all listen.