Today was supposed to be a great day. The annual "Cruisin' For The Cure" car show at the Orange County Fairgrounds was scheduled to be Inland Mopars Car Club's monthly activity. This is a great all-make show featuring close to 3000 cars. It also benefits the City of Hope hospital and research for a cure for Prostate Cancer. Supposed to be a fun day!
We'd set up a meeting spot for early this morning and I was there early. Another club member is always early for these types of get-togethers so I fully expected him to be at the meeting spot when I got there - but he wasn't.
After waiting a few minutes I got a call from him. Turns out he missed the freeway offramp and decided to head on down to the fairgrounds. Except right now he's sitting in his car and says he's "having a little medical emergency" - about 10 miles down the freeway! He told me where he was and I told him I'd be right there.
Just as I pull in to where he said he was, I see his car, a fire truck and an ambulance just starting to pull away!
I found out where the ambulance is going - to one of the very best hospitals in Orange County, thank God!
When I get to his room in the ER, the doctor is telling him he's having a heart attack and they're going to send him for an immediate heart catheterization procedure! HOLY CRAP!!!
30 minutes after he goes in for the heart cath procedure, the doctor comes out and tells me they can't fix the problem with this procedure and now they're assembling a surgical team to do an open-heart bypass. HOLY DOUBLE CRAP!!!
The surgical nurse is really great and calls me on my cell phone just before they start the surgery and every two hours to let me know how it's going.
Bottom line: my buddy starts out to go to a car show and ends up having a triple bypass.
Turns out he'd been experiencing some non-classic symptoms for about a month and thought he'd wait until after a couple of big SoCal car shows to make an appointment with his doctor to get checked out.
Moral of this story: Don't ignore the telltale warning signs! Get checked out immediately or you may check out for good! You never know...
We'd set up a meeting spot for early this morning and I was there early. Another club member is always early for these types of get-togethers so I fully expected him to be at the meeting spot when I got there - but he wasn't.
After waiting a few minutes I got a call from him. Turns out he missed the freeway offramp and decided to head on down to the fairgrounds. Except right now he's sitting in his car and says he's "having a little medical emergency" - about 10 miles down the freeway! He told me where he was and I told him I'd be right there.
Just as I pull in to where he said he was, I see his car, a fire truck and an ambulance just starting to pull away!
I found out where the ambulance is going - to one of the very best hospitals in Orange County, thank God!
When I get to his room in the ER, the doctor is telling him he's having a heart attack and they're going to send him for an immediate heart catheterization procedure! HOLY CRAP!!!
30 minutes after he goes in for the heart cath procedure, the doctor comes out and tells me they can't fix the problem with this procedure and now they're assembling a surgical team to do an open-heart bypass. HOLY DOUBLE CRAP!!!
The surgical nurse is really great and calls me on my cell phone just before they start the surgery and every two hours to let me know how it's going.
Bottom line: my buddy starts out to go to a car show and ends up having a triple bypass.
Turns out he'd been experiencing some non-classic symptoms for about a month and thought he'd wait until after a couple of big SoCal car shows to make an appointment with his doctor to get checked out.
Moral of this story: Don't ignore the telltale warning signs! Get checked out immediately or you may check out for good! You never know...
