My Personal Heart Attack Story

from 2023 Heart Ambassador, Cindy Moriarity

At the time of my 1st heart attack, I was 44 years old. At the time I was working as a 911 Dispatcher and volunteered for my local fire department as a EMT. I work overnight and evenings 8-hour shifts. I was having discomfort for a couple of weeks almost like acid reflux. I would also wake up with a burning feeling in my back. I take medicine for acid reflux, and I have constant back pain due to my other EMT jobs from lifting. When I had these feelings, I would take my pulse and blood pressure and aspirin or Advil, which would take the pain away. This led me to believe that it was from my back. Everything was normal. There was never any pain in my neck or down my arm as people usually say. Besides I was only 44. This was going on for a couple of weeks. One night at work the pain was considerably worse. When I got home from work, I told my husband that I was going to go over to the local ER which was like 10 minutes away.

Off to the ER I went, driving myself to the hospital and smoking a cigarette (I did quit after this). I checked into the ER and they asked what was going on. I said I had some back pain and acid reflux. They took me right back, hooked me up to the cardiac monitor and drew some blood. Shortly after that the doctor came in and said we are sending you to the cardiac hospital because you are having a heart attack. I said to the doctor there is no way I am having a heart attack, I’m only 44. He said you are having a heart attack, and it happens. They ordered an ambulance to take me to the other hospital. Once I arrived at there, I was taken directly to the ICU. They ran a bunch of tests and said that I was going to go to the cardiac catheterization lab to see where the blockages are. The eventually took me to the Cath Lab and sedated me only a little as I told them I wanted to watch. Me being in the medical field I wanted to know. I must have fallen asleep because they woke me up and told me I had a 100 % blockage and they had to put in a stent. They then asked if I wanted to see the clot and I said yes please. Here in a dixie cup was this blood clot the size of a pin head. I was wow this is so small. The staff took me back to ICU where I went for observation. After one night in ICU, I went to the cardiac step-down unit where not so seriously heart patients are sent. I was in the hospital a stayed for about 3 days--this was in 2007. After not taking any medication, I then went to taking like 8 different medicines. They said my cholesterol and blood pressure were high and that I had to be on blood thinnners for the rest of my life--I was also now a diabetic. I went to my regular doctor at least once a year and I was always told everything was borderline, and we will keep an eye on things.

I went home feeling very scared and worried--how I would be able to do my jobs with all the stress that I was under? After 6 weeks the doctor cleared me to go back to work. I was told to go back to my general doctor, cardiac doctor, and diabetic doctor now every 3 months so, I did what I was told except lose some weight which I blame on my jobs.

All was good until 2013. I was working in the ambulance now doing 911 and transport calls. I was having no problems since 2007. In 2011, I was doing EMT work where we do heavy lifting, walking and working in stressful conditions etc. I was home one night as I was not working that evening andI was just chilling watching tv when I started to get pain in my left arm and neck. I spoke to my husband about it and we both agreed to go to the hospital, so he called an ambulance to take me to the hospital. This was so I could get the proper treatment before I got to the hospital. EMT’s responded with the ambulance and the paramedics came in their own vehicle, so the paramedics came on board the ambulance and started treating me with IVS, aspirin and nitro and I was also hooked up to a monitor.

Once we got to the ER, it showed that I had a 95 % blockage. The next day I went to the Cath Lab to get another stent put in. Then another 2 days in the hospital and discharged to home.

Going back to the doctor for clearance who said it was no problem going back to work as I was all better and no more blockages. So, I went back to work. I take all my medications as I am supposed to, but my eating habits are horrible. I was working 12 hour shifts from 7pm to 7am, work 2 days, have 2 days off then work 33 days and then 3 days off, work 1 day have 3 days off, this is a 2-week rotations. I loved my job and helping people. I always said my experience of having heart attacks made me better to help and sympathize with patients and what they were going through. I stayed doing EMT work until 2021 when I was taken out for a hernia problem and was not able to go back to work being an EMT. I was doing hospital office appointments with the same company but had to resign to come to Florida to help my parents. So here I am in sunny Florida enjoying the weather and the beach.

**Special note: I eventually lost 65 lbs. due to taking Ozempic for my diabetes.



“Things Left Unsaid” by Bryan Johnson

My father’s name was Frank Sheldon Johnson. Born April 21, 1958 and passed away April 25, 2022, 4

months ago today. It has not been easy to say the least as things were left unsaid, unresolved and things

I will never get to see. A grandfather getting to meet his grandchildren, see them grow up and do things

in life. See his own kids excel, etc. The pain is everlasting.

For the past 30 or so years my dad had known high blood pressure issues that went unresolved for

many, many years. Poor diet and exercise exacerbated this problem, and it became the gateway to even

worse things. In 2001, during a haircut, my dad planked on the floor for the first time. Although it did

not last long and he did not seek medical attention, this went undiagnosed and was never checked any

further. Many years would go by and another episode occurred when I had left for work one morning

and he was hunched over in a rocking chair in the dark. Thinking he was asleep; I left and came home

hours later to him still hunched over in the chair. He was alert and scared to move but claimed it was

nothing. He just felt sick. I am under the assumption he had a stroke or heart attack.

From 2010-2022, my father had suffered 6+ heart attacks, 3 strokes, High Blood Pressure, Hypertension,

Diabetes, Congestive Heart Failure, 4 stents, Carotid Artery surgery due to massive blockage, vision loss,

etc. On April 20, 2022 at 10:00 PM, my father went into the hospital because his legs were swollen and

he had an open wound that had not healed and was infected. He had told the nurse that he had been

having chest tightness for about a month and breathing issues. Upon further exam, it was determined

he was NSTEMI (Active heart attack). During the echo, it showed his heart functioning between 42-45%

and it was also determined he had Systolic Heart Failure. His active problems during this time were

Heart Failure, Severe Pulmonary Hypertension, Very Anemic, Poorly Controlled Diabetes, Renal Failure,

Chronic Kidney Disease, Extreme Blood Pressure level and Hemoglobin was very low.

On April 22, 2022, he had 2 more stents put in and during this process and evaluation, it was discovered

that his heart was actually only functioning between 33-35%. Anything under 30%, hospice is involved.

He had a 90% blockage. He was then diagnosed with Global Hypokinesis which means the heart got

thicker and weaker and was limiting its ability to contract properly. 

On April 24, 2022, my dad was discharged from the hospital at 2:19PM and he went straight home. He

did not pick up any prescribed medicine. That night he was on the phone with my brother and spoke to

him from 10:40 PM until a little after midnight on the 25th. This would be the last phone call my

father would ever have and the last time anyone would speak to him or hear his voice.

Between the time of hanging up the phone and 6:00AM, we have come to the conclusion he suffered a

massive heart attack in his sleep and never woke up from it.

Don’t let things go unsaid, don’t hold grudges, anger, hatred and most of all, don’t abuse time. We all do

this, and you don’t recognize it until it's too late. It hurts the most knowing I will never get to hear his

voice, see his face, hear "I am proud of you," get a phone call or text from him, talk about music. Put the

resentment aside because time continues, and you never know when it will be over....

Genetic heart issues, Dietary heart issues, whatever it may be, there are ways around this and ways to

live a better life. Getting checked every year, living a healthier lifestyle, knowing family health history on

both sides and making sure you know where to find the right resources to help point you in the right direction, it is preventable.

My Family Heart Disease Ends with Me: Story by Florida Heart Ambassador Brandon Wilson

October 26, 2021

My experience with Familial Hypercholesterolemia, or “FH,” started 30 years ago when I lost my father. I have very happy memories of him, even though I only had him for seven short years. He was a man in his 30’s with a family and a love for life. However, I also have memories of a sick man in the hospital having surgeries. I remember days that he couldn’t take me to ball practice or even get out of bed. My dad was a man with FH, though we did not know the name for it at the time. He was taken from me when he was 39 years old.

  I was diagnosed with high cholesterol a short time after my father passed – though I did not know it had a name. I was eight years old and it was 1993. All I knew was I had my dad’s disease. I was taught to read food labels and be conscious of fats and cholesterol. I feared I could have a heart attack if I didn’t eat properly. Even though I was diagnosed as a child, I was not prescribed medication.

The story I have is unfortunately similar to thousands of others. My family doesn’t usually see men live past age 30. My uncles, grandfather, father, and brother were all taken way too early after multiple heart attacks, strokes, and surgeries. So, I stayed active, and I was very athletic and stayed in good shape. I carried the constant fear that I would suffer the same fate as all the other Wilson men. At the same time, I tried to live a life like anyone else as a teen and into my 20’s. Like most young people, I still felt invincible in spite of my medical diagnosis and family history.

I remember my first episode with chest pain very well - I was 22 years old. It was the first time the hospital said my heart was “fine” and sent me home. It was the first of many times that I was told I was “too young” to be having heart trouble. I had a hard time maintaining health insurance so the few doctors who would actually see me and prescribe a statin were soon gone due to a stack of unpaid medical bills. Fear of the inevitable constantly loomed over me, alongside that “oh well” mentality. After you are turned away so many times, you lose hope.  My thoughts were, "Nobody will ever take me seriously and treat me aggressively. I’ll just live my life however I want because I can’t get the help I need anyway. I’ll have to settle for the fact that I’ll be a man in his 30’s with a wife and kids and I’m going to leave them behind. Heart disease will take me away in true Wilson-man fashion.”

On the brink of my 30th birthday, everything changed. I woke up for work like any other day, but everything felt “off.”  The worst pain I could imagine in my chest and back overwhelmed me. “This is it…” I thought.  The doctors did the work-up on me and my EKG and enzymes were normal. But I had enough morphine to take down a horse and I was still in pain. So, off I went for a cardiac Cath. I came out with a stent and a new appreciation for life. My Left Anterior Descending artery was 99% blocked. I soon learned this is what they call the “widow maker.”  I thought they said I was too young and my heart was fine!  Turns out this was the beginning of my battle with heart disease caused by FH and only my first heart attack that year. My second would be just 7 months later.

Fast forward a few short years and a few stents later, to age 35. I had no real direction in the management of my heart health, no answers for what to do next to protect myself. A feeling of loneliness and hopelessness set in. By this point, I did not even want to acknowledge the pains in my chest. No matter what, I was still never taken seriously. I’d had three stents and two heart attacks and still nobody was willing to dive into the issues and find a solution. Also, at the time I still had no insurance to do all that was necessary.

But then a day came that changed everything. It was only one month after I finally gained insurance and I once again was feeling like something wasn’t right. I knew something was wrong and it was bad. Once again, another normal EKG and enzymes. This time though, they sent me back to the Cath lab, but after years without proper medical care, it was too late for stents. This was my third heart attack and now I needed quadruple bypass surgery at age 35. Though it looked like I was about to follow in the Wilson footsteps, this is actually where I started a more hopeful phase of my life journey.

Shortly after the surgery I started to search for answers myself. I finally found what I had been searching for. It wasn’t a miracle cure and it sure wasn’t a doctor who knew what the heck was wrong. I found my second family - I found the Family Heart Foundation. Through my relentless searching on every platform, I found hope. I found a group of people who showed me exactly where I needed to be, they even gave me a name for my condition, “Familial Hypercholesterolemia.”

My wife and kids, my whole family and my friends are my driving force to get up each day and do what needs to be done to live a full life. The Family Heart Foundation is the massive army and the ammunition that I needed to fight FH. They give me what my dad and other Wilson men didn’t have – the knowledge and resources that could have saved them. Through the Family Heart Foundation, I have had access to genetic testing and a wealth of knowledge that I never would have imagined. What I really gained was how important advocacy is. Not only do I now have the ability and wisdom to stand up for myself and ask for the treatment I need, I have an entire foundation that has my back. Not only can I help myself now, but they’ve also trained me to advocate so I can help others too.

I am currently fighting harder than ever to beat FH. I am experiencing a failing bypass, occluded arteries, restenosis and the unwillingness of doctors and local healthcare to treat me with urgency. Every day I watch my oldest son go off for his senior year of high school worrying if his father will be home or in the hospital at the end of the school day. At this point, my son has seen me have four heart attacks (my fourth was just two months ago), six Caths, open heart surgery and countless ER visits. My wife and younger children just want me to be able to participate in activities, but I’m stuck inside with the passion for life of a man in his 30s, but the heart of a man in his 80s. I fear they see me like I saw my father.

The purpose of my story isn’t to make anyone sad or feel sorry for me. It’s to encourage you and give you hope. Because I now have the tools to advocate for myself, I recently saw a lipid specialist who got me on the right medications to bring my LDL cholesterol down where it needs to be. But the damage was done, so now I’m currently awaiting consultations and surgery with some of the greatest doctors and surgeons in the country to take care of my heart disease.

I owe so much to my 2nd family – the Family Heart Foundation and the community of those with FH who support me. Although what I’ve gone through has not been fun or easy, I’m grateful for all of it. I am so grateful to my mother for knowing how important it was to get me tested young and to know my family history. I wish, as a result of her doing the right thing then, I had received the treatment I needed at the time. I have tried to take what I’ve learned and build on what my mother did for me. I had all of my children genetically tested through the Family Heart Foundation. My daughter is the only one of my children to carry the same gene as me that causes FH. My goal is for her to never face the same issues I have. With her early detection at age one, it’s likely that our family heart disease can end with me.

My children may never know a time that their daddy didn’t have heart disease, but they can know that I and others before me have laid the groundwork for their futures to be bright with healthy hearts. The Family Heart Foundation is the cornerstone for all of us. For me, I am able to plan for the future again and I look forward to living an amazing life with my family. My father would have been 68 years old today. I wish he were here with me. I know that I am blessed to have the opportunity to not only be here for my own kids, but to help prevent other children from losing a parent as I once did.

Brandon Wilson Advocate for Awareness The FH Foundation

Editor Note: Brandon is a Family Heart Foundation Advocate for Awareness. See his family’s genetic testing story below. 

Our Family's FH Story ❤️‍🩹 Genetic Testing our babies / Coffee & Chaos | Family VLOGs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AUhU-hrVdg

Story from Florida Heart Ambassador Keassy Fernandez:

Emma’s Heart: A Journey of Faith Hope, and Miracles is a story about my younger daughter, Emma who was diagnosed with congenital heart disease and heterotaxy syndrome a few days after she was born. She was a heart Hero for 5 ½ months. She had multiple heart defects, an Atrial Septal defect, a Ventricular Septal defect, and a Patent Ductus arteriosus. Heterotaxy syndrome is a rare birth defect that involves the heart and other organs. The beginning of the word (hetero-) means “different” and the end (–taxy) means “arrangement.” There are different forms of heterotaxy syndrome. All usually involve heart defects of varying types and severity. Emma had her heart on the right side of the body, she had an enlarged liver and what doctors called an “unrotated intestine”. We fought a long battle against CHD and spent endless nights in the hospital, praying for her to get better. She underwent three different surgeries; two of which were open-heart surgeries. Towards the end, her kidneys shut down and she was being dialyzed for the last 2 ½ months of her life. Unfortunately, my baby girl lost the battle against CHD due to multi-organ failure. She became a heart angel in heaven and in our hearts. Her journey tested our faith several times, but in that journey, we learned how to keep hope during difficult moments, and we were able to witness unexplainable events, which could only be considered miracles.

Story from Florida Heart Ambassador Sharron Fehrle:

I'm a 64-year-old survivor of two Widowmaker heart attacks, and one inconvenient heart attack. I also survived ventricular tachycardia; ablations are miracles. Although part of my problem is genetics, the majority of the fault is mine, smoking cigarettes, not enough sleep, not enough water, too much Diet Coke, too much stress, not enough cardio, wrong foods, and too many diet pills I relied on for energy to be a mother, wife, employee, volunteer, etc. I have since changed my life and would love to encourage others to do the same. 

The circumstances surrounding the first heart attack. It occurred immediately following me having sex for the first time in 5 years. I was divorced, and recently finished grad school, so I hadn't been active, lol. I had no idea I was having a heart attack, because I felt no pain, I was just nauseous, faint, and a cold sweat. I wouldn't allow my partner to call an ambulance. I went to the doctor the next morning and straight to surgery. It is a miracle I survived. I don't want anyone to die of a heart attack because they don't realize they are having a heart attack. And you can't make up for 5 years in one night. Even my cardiologist couldn't believe I survived a complete blockage of my LAD. It wasn't my time to go, I believe I survived for a reason. Maybe to bring awareness to women about the different symptoms of a ❤️attack. 

Sharron Fehrle~2022 Heart Ambassador

Story from Florida Heart Ambassador Marnina Parrottino:

My husband was a people person- whoever met him immediately was drawn to him and his infectious laugh. He loved life and although he woke up every single morning in pain

 he couldn’t wait to greet and live another day. He never gave up and believed in science and all medical breakthroughs. 

I was the caregiver for my husband for 14 years. He had a defibrillator since 1998,  numerous TIAs in which he lost his peripheral vision, quadruple open  heart surgery in 2005, a punctured intestine which needed emergency exploratory surgery just 2 days after his heart surgery which left him with a stomach hernia. Six months later he was hit by a car that shattered his wrist, a 3-hour ablation procedure to help with his AFib in 2010, a stroke in 2014 in which left him with aphasia and  “pins and needles”  to his whole right side. But, with intensive speech and physical rehab recovered enough to only need the use of a cane. Heart research and advancements helped make my husband live a longer than expected life. 

Then in November 2019 his arteries once again were blocked, and he was given the hope of a second open heart surgery. Because he believed in the science and so much wanted to live his best life, he chose to endure the surgery once more. 

Although he made it through the procedure, he suffered another stroke this time on his left side. After 3 months and a heroic fight he lost his battle in February 2019. 

It has been a very tumultuous journey and my husband was a very sick man. Did he know that smoking, drinking and family history would play a part in his physical well-being? Probably not. Would he have changed his bad habits after those college years? I don’t think so. Only when he finally faced reality did he stop the bad habits, eat healthier, exercise and volunteer with heart organizations to learn everything he could about heart disease and helping others. 

Was it too late? It’s never too late.  He believed in the science and research. He believed in family and friends and in helping others. 

Educate yourself in knowing the signs of heart attack and stroke. Perhaps take a CPR course or be a volunteer and help others. 

Stay healthy and informed. 

And thank you …. from the bottom of my heart” ~ Nina (Marnina) Parrottino

Story from Anonymous:

Heart disease runs in the family for many. I do not think anyone is immune these days. With exposure to COVID, it has been brought to our attention that having an underlying heart condition can mean the difference between life and death.

I never thought about heart disease until a few years ago, when a family member was near death and suddenly diagnosed with a heart issue. Fortunately, the doctors at Memorial Hospital were able to rush him into surgery. He is now alive and well, but he has to constantly undergo check ups. Then I started recalling about my grandfather who had heart failure. Recently, I learned doctors told my dad that he has a weak heart and needs to be monitored. It is strange to be faced with reality that heart disease is in my family. When we are young and healthy, we don’t think about the heart as much as we should. What we do then affects us later on. 

Protecting our heart is key. Since we only have one heart and it is the engine of our being, we must learn how to take care of it as early as possible, by eating right, exercising, and learning how to decrease stress. For these reasons, that is why I felt the need to be involved with your foundation.  ~anonymous