Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.
Psalm 118:29. NLT
I felt no pain, only a slight tightness in my shoulders along with an annoying bloated feeling in my stomach...
Psalm 118:29. NLT
I felt no pain, only a slight tightness in my shoulders along with an annoying bloated feeling in my stomach...
This was accompanied with some shortness of breath, which I didn't even notice myself. But the inmate porter who was sweeping the floor outside my cell did.
He asked if I was okay. I said something like, "Yeah, I'm fine." I thought it was indigestion. And if one knows anything about prison food, indigestion is common. But he went and told the officer anyhow that I didn't look right.
When the officer in charge of the housing unit came to my cell, he asked if I was okay. I assured him that I was, I was probably dealing with an upset stomach, I told him. But he went and called the Infirmary anyhow, and they requested I be sent down there to get checked out. So off to the Infirmary I went, walking on my own.
But when I got there, the doctor told the nurse to give me an electrocardiogram (EKG). Then after the nurse went into his office to give him the results, when he came out several minutes later, however, he ordered her to call for an ambulance.
I asked, "Call an ambulance for me?" I was stunned. I told the doctor that I was much better now and how the bloated feeling had just about disappeared. I wanted to return to my cell. But it wasn't going to happen. An ambulance was on its way. It seemed surreal. A heart attack?
This was to be the beginning of a long journey as I traveled by ambulance first to the emergency room of Saint Luke's hospital in downtown Newburgh, New York, where a battery of tests were administered. Then afterwards, I went by another ambulance to the Albany Medical Center in New York State's capital, where a cardiovascular trauma team awaited my arrival.
For a guy who was feeling okay, or so I thought, I ended up spending about 35 days at the Medical Center. I had to undergo a quadruple bypass, and I was fortunate to have survived. After all, some patients who've had to undergo bypass surgery never made it off the operating table alive.
But thanks to the Lord and a competent medical staff, I survived. Now, five years later, I can look back and say, it was not my time yet. God has more work for me to do.
D. B.
He asked if I was okay. I said something like, "Yeah, I'm fine." I thought it was indigestion. And if one knows anything about prison food, indigestion is common. But he went and told the officer anyhow that I didn't look right.
When the officer in charge of the housing unit came to my cell, he asked if I was okay. I assured him that I was, I was probably dealing with an upset stomach, I told him. But he went and called the Infirmary anyhow, and they requested I be sent down there to get checked out. So off to the Infirmary I went, walking on my own.
But when I got there, the doctor told the nurse to give me an electrocardiogram (EKG). Then after the nurse went into his office to give him the results, when he came out several minutes later, however, he ordered her to call for an ambulance.
I asked, "Call an ambulance for me?" I was stunned. I told the doctor that I was much better now and how the bloated feeling had just about disappeared. I wanted to return to my cell. But it wasn't going to happen. An ambulance was on its way. It seemed surreal. A heart attack?
This was to be the beginning of a long journey as I traveled by ambulance first to the emergency room of Saint Luke's hospital in downtown Newburgh, New York, where a battery of tests were administered. Then afterwards, I went by another ambulance to the Albany Medical Center in New York State's capital, where a cardiovascular trauma team awaited my arrival.
For a guy who was feeling okay, or so I thought, I ended up spending about 35 days at the Medical Center. I had to undergo a quadruple bypass, and I was fortunate to have survived. After all, some patients who've had to undergo bypass surgery never made it off the operating table alive.
But thanks to the Lord and a competent medical staff, I survived. Now, five years later, I can look back and say, it was not my time yet. God has more work for me to do.
D. B.
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