Kevin Smith was driving to work on a September morning last year when his arms suddenly went numb.

He broke into a sweat.

And as he passed Rush-Copley Medical Center in Aurora, he decided to pull into the parking lot.

“I think I’m having a heart attack,” the 40-year-old Plainfield man said as he walked into the emergency room.

That was on a Monday. Five days later, Smith woke up in a hospital bed surrounded by beeping machines and family who flew in from California and New York for what they feared would be his funeral.

Doctors said Smith survived a heart attack so massive his heart stopped beating five times.

“I was the one they brought back to life,” Smith said on Monday afternoon, his cheeks now rosy and his eyes now bright.

He looked down for a moment in thought. The gravity of the incident always hits him hardest when he says it out loud.

This month, which is designated Heart Health Month, hospitals throughout the Fox Valley are trying to raise awareness about heart disease and preventive measures.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death among men and women in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While obesity, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and older age are known risk factors for the disease, it affects the young and the fit as well — often due to genetics.

Smith, rail-thin and tall, didn’t have any major risk factors, according to Dr. Todd Guynn, the cardiac surgeon who massaged his heart back to life.

Neither did Bob Hoerdeman of Plainfield, who was playing soccer when chest pain forced him off the field and onto the bench on a spring day in 2005. He was 56 years old at the time.

It turns out Hoerdeman, who said he never had high blood pressure or cholesterol, had a heart attack.

Doctors at Rush-Copley located a blood clot in a major artery and were able to dissolve it with what Hoerdeman called a cocktail of drugs.

“By the grace of God,” he said, “it just wasn’t my time.”

Hoerdeman’s recovery at the hospital’s cardio rehabilitation center was gradual and painful. But an easy walk on the treadmill turned into a slow jog and eventually, the Chicago marathon, which he ran with his nephew last October.

At the finish line, Hoerdeman felt overwhelming relief.

“Another mile and that was it,” he said. “It took every ounce of everything I had.”

Heart disease is prominent in Hoerdeman’s family. His brother died of a heart attack when he was 38.

Dr. Dave Chua, a cardiologist at Dreyer Medical Clinic in Aurora, who also sees patients at Provena Mercy Medical Center in Aurora, said having a family history of heart disease doesn’t necessarily mean you will have it, too.

“The emphasis,” Chua said, “is on prevention.”

Over the past three years, Chua has seen an increase in young patients — as young as their early 20s — suffering from obesity and heart attacks.

The keys to prevention, Chua said, are diet, exercise and weight management.

“You can’t talk about one without talking about any of the others,” he said.

Since his surgery, Smith began walking regularly and he eats healthier, focusing on fruits, vegetables and chicken, rather than fast food.

Smith also urged his seven siblings to get their cholesterol tested — and four of them had such high cholesterol levels that they were prescribed medicine.

“I saved their lives,” Smith said, joking.

But his wide grin showed that in a way, he knew it was true.

Source: Suburban Chicago News