Heart Attack? No Laughing Matter? Colin Would Know

Regular readers here know that gratefulness is a quality I try to cultivate, and value highly. I once wrote a book about it! Among the top things I’m always thankful for are my lovely wife and her love for me, my reasonably good health and the first responders who keep us safe day in, day out. Recently, one of my friends had these good fortunes reminded him in a rather unpleasant manner. He had a “Sudden cardiac arrest” – a severe heart attack, to most of us. And he’s trying to put a positive on it all, and do some good in the doing which is why I’m going to give him a little plug today.

Colin (Cee Tee) Jackson is a formerly-healthy-as-a-horse Scotsman who loves sports, pets and music. Through the latter I came to know him (online), he is one of two interesting and rather humorous blokes who run the Once Upon a Time in the ’70s website, which looks back at the decade and in particular its music. Many of you might know I also run a daily music blog and in the last year, at times I’ve invited guest writers to weigh in on musical topics. Colin’s written some great pieces, from a Scottish point of view that at times is an interesting contrast to North American ones.

Anyhow, not long back I got a troubling e-mail from his buddy Paul (the co-runner at that website of his) saying Colin was going to be unable to write anything for awhile – he was in hospital after suffering a major event. Soon Colin himself managed to write, in his characteristically chipper nature that he’d wondered where his good luck had been – he’d never won a lottery, his favorite football team never won championships… but he’d found his lifetime’s alotment of luck all in one swoop with the heart attack. (Plus he noted, he’d won a tennis match that day so might end up undefeated this year!)

Life-threatening heart attacks don’t seem like good luck at all, but Colin was quite correct in his assessment. He’s noted that less than 10% of people who have that happen survive it. He did. Thus the luck. Lucky his wife was with him in the car as he began to drive and she noticed something was off with him. Lucky the car didn’t careen out of control with him suddenly immobilized at the wheel. (Easily could have been the Stephen King novel-in-the-making ‘ dead guy’s car runs at store at 100mph. Ramones play as he crushes shoppers…’) Lucky they were near a store. Luckier still, two on-duty police were sitting in that store parking lot, having a lunch break and noticed Colin’s wife’s frantic waving and yelling. They rushed over, began to give him CPR and ran for a defibrillator to shock his heart back to pumping. It worked, and he was rushed to a nearby hospital. The younger cop had only completed his CPR training days earlier. Here in the U.S., there are beyond question, some bad, aggressive poorly trained cops. But they are the minority. Most are very decent and do a thankless and difficult job trying to keep the peace. I salute them.

Nowadays, heart attacks may seem a little routine to many of us. No biggie, and quite easy to work with for medics, but he points out in the book he wrote, No Laughing Matter, that’s far from the case. He initially thought he might be prescribed a few pills and after a day or two rest be sent home. Instead it turned into a month-long ordeal in hospitals with surgery and other at times scary treatments required to finally get him on his feet again.

As I write, Colin is back home but still in some pain from injuries caused by the life-saving CPR and defib. He’s not able to drive not do his job, dog-walking for some time, but he realizes, in typical “glass half full” fashion that he’ll save on gas on the car and docs told him he still can enjoy a beer or two. (Knew there was something about the bud that I liked!) Light-hearted but he’s deadly serious in his understanding of how blessed he is and his whole-hearted compliments and thanks to the cops who saved him and all the medical staff who took good care of him in the hospital are heart-warming. As is his gratefulness for his wife’s dedication as well as their friends who kept driving her to see him in hospital.

I mentioned dog-walking, That’s another message in here. Colin used to be a banker, but he retired and now walks dogs around his neighborhood. That’s his gig. For a 64 year old, he seemed to be in great shape. He exercises daily. He didn’t have chest pains for days leading upto it. But still he was knocked down, dead until a kid cop smashed his ribs and got an electrical paddle onto his chest to ‘Lazarus’ him. A good reminder to us all that keeping in shape is well worth it, but sometimes your number is up… unless you’re very lucky and are surrounded by smart loved ones and capable first responders. A reminder to treat every day like it is special, because it is.

As I said, he wrote a book about it, and I recommend it. Not a Laughing Matter is an interesting read, not too time-consuming (he terms it a “Short read”) and is available as a download or in paperback. Best of all, he’s donating the proceeds to heart-related charities. If you want to check it out, by all means do so . And may your heart be healthy and happy today. And Colin, I say a prayer for you regularly and hope you are back up and able to let your tennis winning percentage dip to .500 before 2024! Cheers my friend.