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Anthony

June Donohue - Columnist
Posted 6/18/20

For some reason I decided to call a young friend who has atrial fibrillation as I do. I hadn't spoken to him in about two years and when I finally got done updating him about my recent health issues, …

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Anthony

Posted

For some reason I decided to call a young friend who has atrial fibrillation as I do. I hadn't spoken to him in about two years and when I finally got done updating him about my recent health issues, I asked how he was doing and what I went through paled when compared with what he told me.

About a year and a half ago he felt his heart beating faster than he had ever felt it before. Anthony didn't even want to wait for an ambulance and since he lives alone, he drove himself to the Emergency Room at Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, New York which is about 20 minutes away from Nanuet where he lives.

Soon after he arrived they transferred him to Westchester Medical Center at Valhalla. There they did a procedure called Cardioversion which is stopping the heart and then restarting it to restore the rhythm. The problem was they couldn't get Anthony's restarted.

He was unconscious but Anthony could hear two doctors talking. One wanted to give up trying to revive him but the other, who knew him from a gym they both belonged to, insisted that they keep trying. The first doctor said that Anthony had gone without oxygen for so long that he would be brain damaged and would also have damage to other organs such as his liver and kidneys, even if they could revive him. Thank God the one who refused to give up, won.

Anthony had spent months in rehabilitation after that. By the time I talked to him about a month ago, he had no speech impediment and had been back at work as a CPA for about 4 weeks. He was again riding his bike also.

Anthony doesn't smoke or drink, he eats a healthful diet and exercises on a regular basis. So what went wrong? He had an infected tooth and the infection traveled to his heart.

It was an amazing recovery and no one was more amazed than his doctors.

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