On Sunday, January 28, 1996, Super Bowl Day, I had a scary experience and ended up in the Guelph General Hospital. On a typical morning I woke up at five and after some warm-up exercises, went for a walk. It was cold outside but the walk was fairly comfortable and I enjoyed it. It was my usual route and it took about 40 minutes. Some snow had accumulated on the driveway so I decided to do some shovelling. It was easy as I just pushed the snow to the side. After about 25 minutes Lucy shouted that breakfast was ready. There was still some more shoveling to do but I decided to stop. When I came in and took off my boots, gloves and coat, my hands felt very cold and I rubbed them vigorously to stimulate circulation, but with little success. I felt dizzy and decided to lie on the floor as it was the safest place. My clothes were wet with perspiration. When I found that my pulse was very weak, I used my nitroglycerine spray. When the dizziness persisted and my pulse was still weak, I decided to use a second shot of nitroglycerine and asked Lucy to call 911. I feared that I was having a heart attack.
The fire men and the ambulance arrived within seven minutes and they gave me Oxygen; they were unable to detect my pulse. My blood pressure was very low and I was pale-- I learnt this from one of the ambulance attendants whom I saw in the hospital later in the day. During this time I was still conscious but in a daze. They kept asking me questions and I was annoyed that they asked me questions when I was in discomfort. In hindsight I realized that they wanted to keep me awake and conscious. On the way to the hospital, I was scared and wondered if I was going to meet the same fate as Don Amichand, who had died less than a week earlier on January 23. Don had also been taken by ambulance to the hospital after he had felt dizzy from his walk.
At Don’s funeral two days earlier, I learnt that his background was very similar to mine. We were approaching 60 years, had attended Canadian Mission Schools in our respective countries, had come to Canada to further our education, had both suffered heart attacks and had retired from our respective jobs. I had reason to be scared.
At the Emergency Room at the hospital, I was kept on Oxygen and was given an intravenous, which was most likely saline solution. My blood pressure had improved but was still low. I felt better within an hour. In the next room a gentleman was brought in and I learnt that he was 58 years old and had also been shovelling snow when he experienced dizziness and pain. He had had by-pass surgery about 10 years earlier but had not experienced any problem recently. He told the doctor that he had visited Russia a few months earlier and had not been feeling well. His family doctor had suspected infestation with parasites. As soon as I heard his background I knew that it was Dave Berry, who had recently retired as Vice-Principal at G.C.V.I. and had taught me at Teacher’s College at Althouse College in 1969. Only a few weeks earlier I had read an article about him in the Guelph Tribune. I was attended by three doctors: an intern whose name I cannot recall, Dr. Levi, whose accent indicated that he was Jamaican, and Dr. Schwartz, a cardiologist. Later that day I was placed in the Intensive Care Unit and kept on Oxygen and intravenous. On Tuesday my condition had stabilized and I was moved to another floor. I was kept in hospital until Friday, February 2nd. During this time I had various tests performed--blood tests, ECG, echocardiagram and a stress test. Dr. Schwartz explained that I had not suffered any further damage to my heart. He was able to detect a depression on the ST wave of my ECG, and ischemia which corresponded with my angina. He felt that I was dehydrated during my walk and snow shovelling and there could have been some ischemia. These lowered my blood pressure and made me feel dizzy. Then the use of the two shots of nitroglycerine further lowered my blood pressure. I felt comfortable with Dr. Schwartz because he spent some time with me and explained my condition. I was glad to hear that he would be attending to me when I was released from hospital. I was relieved to learn that no damage was done to my heart but must confess that I was really scared especially when I was being taken by ambulance to the hospital.