My Tim Russert Story

Many people have Tim Russert stories. Most of those who tell their stories knew Russert, much better than me. I only got to know him one late spring night and early morning, in June of 1997 in Cleveland when we drank beers and told stories until four o’clock in the morning under a tent on a suburban college campus.

The occasion of this gathering was sort of a reunion within a reunion. Five of us were back on the campus of John Carroll University for our college class reunions. Russert and Mark Pacelli were back for their 25th reunion and Bill Gagliano, Stan Mambort and I were back for our 20th. We shared common bond beyond just being fellow alumni; we were all members of the same fraternity, The University Club.

In the early to mid seventies, The University Club, or U-Club as it was commonly referred to, was chartered to be the “student host organization for the university” which was liberally interpreted to meaning that we were responsible for putting on rock concerts in the gymnasium. It was in this capacity that Bill, Stan and I first actually met Russert. We had all heard of him before of course. He was a legend in the U-Club even back then.

It was 1975 and we were in our sophomore year at John Carroll. Though he graduated John Carroll in 1972, Russert was still in Cleveland attending law school at Cleveland Marshall School of Law. With his connections in the U-Club, he ended up brokering a deal with another fraternity brother, Hal Becker who was then a senior at JCU, to bring Bruce Springsteen to the 2,000 seat gymnasium at John Carroll. This was well before Bruce Springsteen reached his peak of fame. Evidently Russerts brief foray into rock concert promotion helped pay his way through law school.

At least that’s what he told us that night. He also told us that years later he became friends with Springsteen and shared the story of the John Carroll concert with him and thanked him for helping to pay for his law degree. Both had by then decidedly grown in national recognition.

In fact, by the late spring of 1997, as we sat laughing and knocking back beers until the wee hours of Saturday morning, Russert had already been hosting Meet the Press for six years. Ironically, the one topic that was not discussed that evening was politics. We shared stories of our escapades during our years at John Carroll and reminisced about common friends and experiences. I seem to recall that we only agreed to go bed when we ran out of beer.

Over the years I’ve told this story several times to different people. When I’d see Russert on TV I’d often point out to anyone listening that we were fraternity brothers. If anyone probed a little more and asked if I knew him, I would invariably tell the story of the beer drinking bull session under the tent. When asked what he was I like, I always told them that he was the real deal; a regular good guy.

Last Friday, when I heard the news of his sudden death, the memory of that evening came back again and with it came immense gratitude for having had that opportunity to get to know my fellow fraternity brother a little better.

Graduation Day

I completed my cardiac rehabilitation classes today. The nurses said I graduated.

Three days a week for the past three months I have dutifully trekked to Howard County General Hospital to rehabilitate my cardiac. I am proud to say that my cardiac is fully rehabilitated.

I’m glad to be done.

It wasn’t the exercise that bothered me. I have come to accept that my lot in life is to make exercise part of my regular regime at least five days a week. It was the other stuff I grew to dislike like strapping on the remote EKG monitor. Each time, after the class was finished, I’d defoliate my chest just a little more as I tore off those sticky EKG pads off my chest. My chest hair now resembles a rogue timbering operation.

I also hated having my blood pressure taken while I ran on the treadmill.

I’m going back to my old gym now. I haven’t worked out there since the treadmill incident. I’m looking forward to returning to that routine.

I will miss the people though. The nurses, Susan, Allyson, Beth, Ann, Cindy, Diana and Tricia (I probably missed a name or two) were terrific. Their humor and compassion made the inconveniences more than tolerable.

I’ll also miss my cardiac classmates. I met lots of great people over the three months. Some I posted about already, others I just met today, like Ed. Ed had a quintuple bypass. He was on vacation in Calgary when he came up short of breath.

“I really didn’t have any chest pains,” he told me.

I told him I didn’t either. Ed told me that he had actually been feeling fatigued for about a month before that fateful day in Calgary. “When I told that to my wife I thought she was going to kill me.”

If the heart disease don’t get ya, the angry spouse surely will!

When he got home and went to hospital he was admitted immediately. They told him he had two arteries that were 90% blocked and three that were 60% blocked.

Ed was just starting his cardiac rehab run. I told him that I clearly recall my first sessions. I felt like the new kid in school.

I’ll miss the women in my class too. They have made me think that perhaps I should start a new label entitled “Heart attack gals.” They have some pretty incredible stories too.

Still, I am glad to be finished. In my exit review with Beth she told me that I remain at high risk for another heart attack due to things I have no control over; my age and my family history. I guess it’s possible I could end up for some post grad cardiac rehab sometime down the road.

For now though I feel pretty good so I’ll just be happy with that.

Real Heroes

I stand out a little in my cardiac rehab class. The class is currently made up of six men and five women. I suspect I might be the youngest man in the class but at least one of the ladies is younger than me.

I come to the 9:30 AM class dressed for action. I wear running shoes, running shorts and an Under Armor t-shirt. I have my iPod strapped to my arm.

The dress for most of the other class members is best described as suburban casual. None of the other guys are wearing shorts. The only other iPod user is one of the gals.

In short order I have usually worked up a sweat. Right now I’m running two miles in twenty minutes on the treadmill.

Around me, on the other treadmills, the pace is somewhat less aggressive.

All in all I was feeling pretty good about myself in comparison to my classmates until I noticed the scar. I can’t recall the first guy I saw with one. People are always coming and going over the 36 session period so at first you don’t catch all the names but I remember the scar. These are the open heart guys and gals. I kid them that they had major plumbing work compared to what I had.

I began to be humbled by these cardiac classmates. Take Joel for instance. I talked with Joel today as we waited for our blood pressure to be taken before our session. I had taken note of Joel’s chest scar a couple of sessions earlier.

“It looks like you’ve had some major plumbing work done.”

“Yeah, I had a quintuple bypass.”

“No shit.”

“They really didn’t think I’d make it. I was in a comma for nine days.”

“How did it happen?”

“I was home. It just came on me.”

I’m going to guess that Joel is in his mid to late fifties. He told me that he doesn’t smoke or drink and that he always ate pretty healthy. He wasn’t overweight either.

“Is there a family history?”

“Not really.”

Just bad luck I suppose. Then again, he is alive today so his luck can’t be all that bad. Joel told me that he is a computer programmer by trade but he also has another job. Joel plays the piano in the local Nordstrom on weekends.

It is interesting that he has returned to his piano playing gig but I don’t believe he has gone back to his programmer job yet. As you can see in the picture, Joel is doing fine considering that his surgery was just this past November.

That makes him a real hero in my book.

Rob From Glen Burnie

“I finished my shift before I went to emergency room.”

I was talking to a guy named Rob in my cardiac rehab class. He looked to be in his mid thirties. He’s a big guy. He had only recently joined the class.

“I can’t wait to get rid of this thing.”

Rob has a walker to help him get around. He says that after surgery he didn’t trust that his legs would hold him up. Rob had open heart surgery. He had five major blockages in his arteries.

“I have the road map of Florida to Maine on my chest.”

I bet. What struck me about Rob’s story is that, once again, here is a guy who was having a heart attack but thought he just shrug it off. He finished his shift for crying out loud! That is so typical of a guy.

“They flew me in a helicopter to Hopkins.”

Rob got the helicopter ride!

“It was pretty scary.”

Scary?

Rob just had a major heart attack and is on deaths door and he is scared of a helicopter ride. Go figure.

I told Rob that I got a ride in the back of the truck. I also told him to hang in there. The nurses in the cardiac rehab program will have him off that walker in no time.

And speaking of jeopardy…

The big news last night was that Alex Trebek, the host of Jeopardy, suffered a minor heart attack. He is expected to return to the studio next week.

I’ll take heart attacks for two hundred.

Wayne's Story in Three Parts (3)

I ended the third installment of Wayne’s story with his twelve minute helicopter ride from Howard County General Hospital in Columbia, Maryland to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

“Within five minutes of the helicopter landing on the roof of Johns Hopkins I was in the operating room being prepped for Angioplasty. With local anesthetic to my leg where the catheter was inserted and a mild sedative to help me relax I was awake throughout the hour and a half operation. They found one total blockage of the Left Anterior Descending (LAD) artery and one partial blockage of another artery of the heart. They opened both with a balloon and put a stent in the LAD. I was then taken to the Hopkins Cardiac Care Unit for a four day stay. I have never seen such a well run place in a hospital. The nurses, doctors, and interns were not only very helpful and knowledgeable, they were nice people showing real concern for me. I felt like I was the only patient there.”

Ann had called me later that fateful Sunday and told me what had happened to Wayne. On Tuesday I went down to visit him with another cycling buddy, Julius Hader. Wayne was in great spirits and regaled us with the story of his helicopter ride. He looked a lot better than the last time I saw him. He felt he was on the road to recovery but was he?

“On Thursday the 26th I was able to go home about 4:00pm. At 2:00am I awoke with pain in my chest. It was a totally different pain than the heart attack, more like tight muscles than an elephant standing on my chest. Off we went to the ER. I was admitted but not quite as quickly as the first time but still a good response. After multiple ECG’s and various medicines and drugs they decided something had probably happened with my heart but not strong enough to show up in the ECG’s. I think it was a reaction to the medicines I was on and the stress of the situation. They kept me in the hospital for the day and released me about 7:00pm. Everything has been constant improvement since. It looks like I will come out healthier than before the attack. By getting the Tpa so quickly it looks like I will have almost no damage to my heart Added to that is the fact that two arteries are now wide open instead of being partially blocked, it all adds up to me coming out of this in great shape.”

Wayne is doing great. I met up with him this past Friday for coffee. Interestingly, he still drinks regular (not decaf) coffee. “Ann has given up on that issue,” he told me. I think it is because he told her that he wasn’t about to change that habit. Other than that he looks great. He is in fighting trim and though he hasn’t been on his road bike for some time he still exercises regularly. We plan to meet up for a walk sometime.

Wayne claims that I may have saved his life. I always blanch when he says this. The point he wants to make though is that as a buddy I did the right thing. I ruled out any further biking that morning and stayed with him rather than leaving to go get my car. He had a cell phone after all and calling Ann was the only wise course. I don’t consider that to be anything but using common sense. If he thinks it saved his life so be it.

Wayne is still enjoying his retirement. He is an adjunct professor of computer science at Howard Community College and he has a new hobby of making ballpoint pens. He is showing off some of his work in the picture I took of him Friday morning.

Wayne's Story in Three Parts (2)

Yesterday, in the first installment of Wayne’s story, I left off where Wayne is picked up by Ann. We maneuvered Wayne’s bike into the back seat of the red Mustang and off they went. I stood there and watched as they drove out of sight. “I hope he’s okay” I thought. He really didn’t look good.

It was now around 8 o’clock. I was midway between my house and the bagel shop. I decided to head home. You may recall that in the first part of Wayne’s story I mentioned that I had a hangover. It wasn’t as bad as when started out earlier that morning but the thought of going back to bed felt pretty enticing. Wayne, on the other hand, was having a different experience.

“Upon arrival home I was feeling a little better and told Ann I was going to walk around in front of the house as that usually helped relieve the gas of acid reflux. She went upstairs and got ready for church. Just before she came back downstairs I started feeling some pain in the middle of my back. As she came down the stairs I started having pain in my arms. I thought both might be due to straining while riding up that hill. Ann and I decided it would be a good idea to call Sarah, a friend of ours who is a nurse. Ann called Sarah and barely got the description of the situation out when Sarah said, “get him to ER immediately”. Off we went.”

Don’t you love how Wayne writes “Off we went.” I mean I know this guy. He is a true Midwesterner. When he says a line like this it is usually with a bit of Midwestern drawl with a smile on his face.

“I walked into the ER while Ann parked the car and told the person at the desk I thought I was having a heart attack. He called for a nurse and then escorted me to a cubicle just behind his desk. The nurse arrived immediately, took one look at me and said “sit still I am going to get a wheel chair”. She grabbed one that was just a short distance away and took me back into the new ER facility, put me on a table/bed and brought the doctor on duty over to me. He paged the Cardiologist he knew was upstairs starting his rounds. In just a few minutes they had me on an ECG machine and took all my vital signs. The Cardiologist (Dr. Silverman) arrived and asked me a few questions about my pain, how it came on, etc. At this point it had been just under a half hour since I walked up to the front desk.”

“While the Cardiologist and ER doctor were discussing the possibilities, the ECG went wild and a huge pain of pressure hit my chest. I was having an all out heart attack. The cardiologist called for a syringe of Tpa and called out several other commands to the nurses. I learned later that Tpa is a clot dissolving drug. Within ten minutes or less the pain had almost disappeared. Everyone was very happy the drug had done its job and were discussing the event and the doctor started telling me what was to come next in terms of treatment. Then the second one hit. They could not inject anymore Tpa but did inject other things the only one I recognized was morphine. I asked the Cardiologist if I was going to make it. He said, “I’m not going to let a fellow bicyclist die, your going to make it just fine.” He called for the Medivac helicopter from Johns Hopkins Hospital. He and the nurses stayed with me throughout the 30 minute wait for the chopper. The morphine had made the pain more tolerable and I made the 12 minute return flight to Hopkins in only medium pain.”

Apparently Dr. Silverman was an avid cyclist. I guess sometime during that initial questioning Wayne had mentioned that he had been cycling that morning which prompted the comment about not letting a fellow cyclist die. One does wonder what he would have said if Wayne had told him he was a runner (he used to be).

And Wayne got the helicopter ride!

I know it is not that enjoyable when you are hooked up with IV drips and a blood pressure cuff but it still beats the 45 minute ride in the back of the truck.

When I think back he was probably flying over my house as I climbed back into bed that Sunday morning. It was later that day that Ann called me and told me what had happened to Wayne.

Wayne’s Story in Three Parts (1)

Wayne Ivester is a buddy of mine. For a period of time around five years ago, he and I got together for an early Sunday morning bike ride on our road bikes. We lived close to each other so I’d simply peddle over to his place and then we’d ride off together.

It was during one of these rides that Wayne’s cardiac event occurred.

Wayne has written his story. This is fortunate because five years ago I told him I’d write it. The plan was to write something we could submit to Men’s Health or Outside magazine. I never did it.

But Wayne did and now I can share it here with my own commentary thrown in. Like I said, I was there. It is a bit long so I’ve broken it up into three parts. This is the first. I’ll let Wayne speak first.

“Ann and I were looking forward to a vigorous hiking trip with Elderhostel in New York. A couple we had become friends with were going to be on the same hike. The setting sounded great, a remote section of the Catskill Mountains about 2 hours southwest of Albany. The session was scheduled to begin at 5:00pm on Sunday September 22nd. We decided we could leave home about 11:00am and make it to the Inn we would be staying at by 5:00pm. Since we would not be leaving early I decided I had time to get in my usual Sunday morning bike ride with my friend Dennis. We ride 8 miles out to a bagel shop for a bagel and then back home.”

Wayne is in pretty good shape. He regularly rode his bike and he and Ann also are into horseback riding. Wayne is an engineer by training who took early retirement from a sales career with IBM before I ever met him.

“Dennis and I left my house about 7:00am expecting our normal ride. It turned out to be anything but normal. I got on my bike and started to shove off when I realized I had forgotten my cell phone. I went back in the house and grabbed it. The ride went along uneventfully for the first half hour.”

Okay, maybe it was uneventful for Wayne but as for me I was nursing a mild hangover. I had been out partying the evening before. When Wayne mentioned that he forgot his phone I almost suggested that we just call it quits and go back home. But I didn’t.

“At that point we came to a long steep hill we had been jokingly calling “killer hill”. For some reason I decided to attack the climb more aggressively than usual and was leading Dennis until just before the top. He usually is ahead of me all the way. As he passed he said he was going to stop at the top to make an adjustment to his equipment.”

By this time I’m starting to feel better. Wayne on the other hand was complaining of having a little indigestion. He mentioned something about rich Italian food the night before. When he started shooting up that ridiculously steep hill I thought, “What’s got into him today?”

Did I mention that he laid out this route?

Anyway, I took the challenge and shot after him, finally passing him just before the crest. I can’t recall if I really had an equipment problem or not but I was glad to take a break. When I looked back behind at Wayne he had slowed considerably. He didn’t look so hot either.

“I was breathing hard but felt fine. As I pulled to the curb and stopped my chest started hurting a little. It didn’t surprise me as I had eaten a lot of rich food the day before at an afternoon party/horse show. I told Dennis I was having an acid reflux attack and wanted to sit a minute before going on.”

He may have felt good but he didn’t look good. His face was flushed. He sat for a minute and then said he had to answer natures call. He left that part out his story but I recall it clearly. He was in the woods a long time.

“The minutes started adding up and I wasn’t getting any better. We discussed riding on, turning back, etc. Dennis suggested I call Ann and have her come pick me up. I objected because I said I could never explain over the phone how to put the bike rack on my car. Dennis persisted and I remembered I had given a bicyclist a ride one time by putting the top down on my car and putting the bike in the back seat.”

When he finally came back out of the woods he looked even worse. We both kind of understood that his ride was over at this point. The question became what to do next. Wayne actually suggested that I ride back and get my car with the bike rack and then come back to get him. Given the way he looked I didn’t think that was such a great idea. He really agonized about how his bike was going to get home. For good reason too, it is a nice bike.

“About 7:50am I called Ann and she left immediately, arriving in 8 minutes after we hung up. At this point I was starting to feel a little better. I had passed through a stage of cold sweats and dizziness.”

To say that Ann got there fast would be understatement. Before I knew we had loaded his bike into the convertible and off they went leaving me atop killer hill.

I decided to turn around and head home. It would a couple of days before I saw Wayne again. He was lying in a bed at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Joe From Jacksonville

What gave me a chuckle about Joe Dougherty’s heart attack story was his lament over not getting the helicopter ride to the hospital for his cardiac catheterization procedure. Apparently the weather was bad so they had to cart him in the ambulance. I mean if you are going to have a life threatening event at least you sometimes get a helicopter ride.

A whirlybird ride wasn’t even offered in my case. I relate to my hospital transfer as a ride in the back of the truck.

Also, like a true football fan, Joe recalled getting into the ICU in time to catch the fourth quarter of the Steelers/Jets game.

“The Steelers beat the Jets, 20 -17, in overtime. IIRC, the Jets' kicker missed a potential game-winning FG late in the 4th, then another one in the overtime. I remember arriving in the ICU and the nurses getting me settled in the bed. I turned on the TV and saw the game was just going into the 4th quarter, so I got to see the best part of the game.

I also recall getting a little excited as I watched it (along with the arrival of my wife, daughter and other family), and apparently the monitor at the nurses station was indicating that my respiration was up (I was getting oxygen through a nasal fitting), so the nurse had to come in and tell me to relax a little.”

Anyway, he tells a great tale of his cardiac episode here and with a follow up about his ICU roommate here.

When I found his story I dropped him a note to find out how he is doing. It has been about two years since his heart attack and in his words “Things are going well with the old ticker. That was a scary day!”

Amen to that brother.

Hall of Fame

For me, Sundays in the fall are football days. So I thought a post about football and heart attacks would be appropriate today. In more than a few of the heart attack stories involving guys that I've found, the guys did not let a little thing like a heart attack keep them from their passion for the game. Even when faced with a life threatening event, these guys still wanted to know how their team was doing.

Take Terry O’Neill for example. His heart attack occurred while he was watching the Steelers Colts playoff game in January 2006 at his local pub. When Jerome Bettis fumbled on the two yard line, Terry went into cardiac arrest. After being released from the hospital he seemed unfazed by his heart attack but he lamented the fact that he’d have to watch the AFC Championship game from home instead of being with his buddies at his favorite watering hole. This was of course the year that the Steelers went on to win the Super Bowl.

For that exanple of a true guy spirit, Terry becomes the first honoree in the heart attack guy Hall of Fame.