Tom is Back on Par After a Heart Attack
2/18/2025
Tom, of Avra Valley, loves to golf – and he’s usually a good hitter. But one day last summer, at the very first tee, he noticed his swing was off.
By the second tee, Tom felt lethargic and nauseous, and was sweating far more than was normal for him on the golf course, even in the summertime.
By the third hole, Tom’s joints were hurting. He knew his golf game was over.
“It was taking a long time for me to walk back to the pro shop,” he remembers, “and I knew there was something big wrong.. I thought, ‘This is dire, and if I don’t get hooked up soon with someone who knows how to fix me, I’m not going to get fixed.’”
Someone picked Tom up in a golf cart, where he slumped sideways, unable to sit up. Paramedics revived him – partly in the pro shop (where he received a coupon for a free round of golf) and partly in the ambulance en route to the closest hospital.
Tom had suffered two cardiac arrests – the kind caused by a complete blockage in his left anterior descending artery – the one that supplies blood to the heart muscle. It wasn’t his first heart attack – he suffered one years ago, at age 47, on a rollercoaster ride in Florida with his kids.
To survive this kind of heart attack, however, Tom needed emergency treatment and further intensive care, including a stent (his fifth). Two days after being discharged from the hospital, he had to go back in for treatment of two blood clots in his lung.
When he was strong enough, Tom came to Northwest Medical Center’s cardiac rehabilitation gym to return to the great shape he was in before his heart attack.
“It’s been a long road back,” he says. “Cardiac rehab is so vital because I wanted to get back on my treadmill at home safely. This program gave me the confidence to get back in shape, rather than sit around and worry. You have a great group of people here – they’re just so helpful, and they give good guidance.”
Tom golfed 18 holes this week with his son. He didn’t use the free pass from the golf course, though.
“I might keep that and frame it,” he says. “It’s like a souvenir of what I went through.”
Congratulations to Tom on his hard, steady work of recovery – and thanks to all the staff and friends at the cardiac rehab who helped encourage that work.
American Heart Month is celebrated in February – a great time to learn more about heart disease and the steps you can take to prevent it. For more about the ways Northwest Healthcare is committed to keeping our community’s hearts healthy, visit https://www.healthiertucson.com/cardiac-care.
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