| One afternoon, in September of 2006, about a month after I turned 58, I was overtaken by excruciating chest pain, nausea, and profuse sweating. I tried to “walk it off” for about two hours at home but finally decided to go to the emergency room. I was sure that if I could just get some pills that everything would be fine. I drove myself 40 miles to the nearest hospital, and the next thing I knew the staff was looking for a helicopter to airlift me to a hospital that treats heart attack victims. I remember thinking, “They must be mistaken, I could never have a heart attack, I’m a healthy man, and I have no history of heart disease or coronary artery disease in my immediate family.” Plus, I thought, heart attacks only happen to other people. The doctor said that I had one artery that was completely blocked, which had caused the heart attack, and another artery was significantly blocked. He had opened up the completely blocked artery with a balloon stent, but he did not do anything with the other artery. As a CPA who had worked for a large Texas hospital system for over 37 years, I had always told myself I would never become a patient in a hospital’s progressive care/telemetry unit, but here I was. That was just the beginning of my education in the differences between how modern medicine treats heart attack victims and how it should treat heart attack victims, in most cases. The medical profession leaves the impression that it is not possible for a heart attack victim to survive without drugs, but it is simply not true. I have learned a lot along my journey, and if at all possible, I hope to spare others from unnecessary surgery and a lifetime of medication. | 