Its short.

There was a 69 year old gentleman who told me the heart-wrenching story about his wife, who is dying of cancer and in the care of a hospice facility where she is not expected to live past the next week. His son's daughter, who had been a long time family friend prior to her marriage into the family, had suddenly passed away 2 weeks ago, suspected suicide via drug overdose but the family didn't wish to pursue an autopsy. This man and his family are from a very rural part of the state, simple-minded individuals but very emotional, especially regarding the current state of his family's welfare.

At the time we spoke, this same gentleman had a 2 day history of what he called "chest pain", which began soon after eating a friend's homemade meatloaf 2 days ago. Thinking it was indigestion, he took 2 Rolaids that night with complete relief of his pain. The next morning, he had the same "chest pain", and took another Rolaids, which he said didn't do much that time. After speaking with his son about his symptoms, he decided to try drinking baking soda dissolved in water, which he heard was a pretty reliable home remedy, and said his pain was relieved temporarily. When it returned again the morning after (the morning we spoke), his son brought him to the Emergency Department. He was worked up for the standard MI labs and also given a GI cocktail to try to treat what sounded like GERD. Lo and behold, he said his pain was completely gone after the GI cocktail. Though his first set of cardiac markers were minimally elevated, a 3-hour follow-up set was negative. The consulting cardiologist was coincidentally in the ED at the time his second set of cardiac enzymes resulted, so the case and all labwork were discussed, and the cardiologist stated "I'll take a look". He returned about 10 minutes later and said to have the man follow-up in his office for an outpatient nuclear stress test. The message was relayed to the gentleman, who was discharged from the ED at that time.

That lovely gentleman returned to the Emergency Department approximately 4 hours later status post cardiac arrest, DOA.

The son asked over and over again how it could possibly be that he was just in the ED and arrested but mere hours later. That's a good question.

All I'm saying is: don't wait to tell him you love him. When the time comes, it's here, and there ain't nothing you can do to stop it.


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“.. almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
- Steve Jobs, CEO and co-founder, Apple Inc.