Stories of my near death are greatly undertated!

Many still find the news unbelievable but the facts are the facts, “The Coach” came very close to dying a little more than a week ago.  Far too often there are also stories which flow through our small community (which means we’ve all heard at least one of them) of discontent and at times blatant insults of the staff of our local hospital.

I would like to state publicly, it was the excellent work performed by the emergency staff at Stevenson Memorial along with our local EMS professionals and volunteer firefighters which saved my life. In these situations one rarely gets all the proper names of the individuals involved. Being public servants, their motivation and professionalism never seeks to gain personal praises for doing their job. But I’d like to thank all of you from the bottom of my now slightly damaged (but healing) heart for being there for me!

As a football coach I always look to provide a venue for my athletes to learn. Win or lose, if they are learning I can always feel a job was well done. I’ve always believed, even if an individual falls flat on their face, at least they were moving in the right direction...FORWARD!

I wanted to take this opportunity to have as many people as possible also learn from my near fatal experience. I am under 40. I made healthy eating choices. I was physically active. Kept a healthy weight. Annual visits to my doctor. Low cholesterol level.

So how did I manage to have better than an 80 per cent blockage of a main artery?

For me it turned out to be genetics. What about you? While you may think you are the picture of health, when was the last time you had a stress test? How physically active are you? Have you had your cholesterol level checked? What about your blood pressure? And perhaps more importantly to many of you than you could imagine, when was the last time you had a discussion with your family members about potential health issues which can be hereditary?