Being that our heart is perhaps our most vital organ, ignoring any unusual behavior might ultimately prove fatal for anyone not cognizant enough to realize it. This can also a result from folks misunderstanding the symptoms of an oncoming heart attack as well.
On the morning of August 13th, 2018, Ed Burkett got up as he always did. He showered, got dressed, and got ready for an early tee off. He hadn’t known anything was wrong, he’d slept just fine and was well rested. Burkett had no clue that inside his chest, his heart was about to put him through the most difficult day of his life.
A Passion
Not knowing what awaited him at the course, Ed Burkett got into his car and drove off to the Lake Park golf course in Lewisville, Texas. It was the same course he frequented four or five days a week. Golf was a passion for Burkett and in his retirement years, it had become the thing he looked forward to the most.
Friends On The Links
Burkett never golfed alone either. Many of his guy friends were also returned and the group of them would often meet up on the links to play for money. It wasn’t much, usually ten cents a hole, but it made the game a bit more interesting. The stakes were a bit higher on this particular day than they had been on any others, however.
Chest Pains
The friends golfed as usual and had a few laughs when suddenly, Burkett started to feel gas bubbling up into his chest. After trying to ignore it, the gas pains began stretching all across his arms and up into his shoulder. They aches arched across his chest and forced him to lean against the cart.
Something Amiss
John Wood, one of Burkett’s oldest friends, noticed that his friend was in a bit of discomfort, but was assured that he was fine. The group got to about the 13th hole before Burkett reached over to John and told him, “I gotta get some help.” Yet the tone of his voice and the look in his eyes told John just as plainly that something was very wrong.
Take The Cart
John helped Burkett into the golf cart but left the gold clubs where they lay. Burkett was worsening with each passing moment. John drove the little golf cart over the hills of the golf course, going as fast as he could until they reached the clubhouse. The rest of their golf buddies stayed behind to gather their things.
Transport to Safety
An ambulance was waiting for Burkett when they arrived. The Navy veteran was rushed to the VA Center in Denton and then transferred to Medical City, Denton. It was clear by his chest pains, shortness of breath, and tingling in his extremities, that Burkett had suffered a heart attack, but even the paramedics had no idea how bad it really was.
Worrying Condition
Cardiologist Dr. Gary Fazio was on call when Ed Burkett was brought in. He recalled that by the time Burkett actually arrived in the emergency room, he looked awful. Over the next harrowing hour, this particular patient would prove to even a veteran physician like Fazio what the human body is capable of.
One Attack, Two Attack
Burkett’s heart stopped when he was on the table, so Fazio and the other doctors restarted it. A moment later and it stopped again. Hooked up to the machines, it was easy to watch as Burkett’s oppressed organ stopped and started in rapid succession. He had suffered one heart attack on the links and the travel to the hospital gave way to many more.
Pre-Emptive Measures
Even as Burkett was laying in the emergency room, fighting for his life, his grieving family was already planning for the worst. Being that his odds of surviving and leading a normal life were about 1.75 million-to-one, it seemed prudent to be prepared. They even put a down payment on his funeral. Things were that bad.
Rapid Succession
It wasn’t until hours later that Dr. Fazio and his team were finally able to stabilize the former Navy man. This was after having to restart his heart a whopping 44 times. Still, they had done it, they had stabilized him. This was an impossible task and one that even Burkett’s worried relatives had not anticipated happening.
A Near Thing
It was a near thing to the end and one that Dr. Fazio considers nothing short of miraculous. “There are miracles that happen every day here,” he explained while talking to NBCDFW. The astonished doctor added that “Sometimes it takes someone like Ed to make it so obvious.” The incident wasn’t just miraculous, it was also unheard of.
44 Attacks, 20 Years
Dr. Fazio had been in medicine for more than 20 years and in two decades of working with patients and specifically the heart, he had never seen someone survive after 44 separate attacks. He had never come close to witnessing that kind of physical and emotional fortitude. “Generally speaking, after that many defibrillations, you’ve lost that battle,” he explained.
Brain Damage
Still, even though Burkett had survived, that didn’t mean that he would return to normal. His brain has been deprived of oxygen a number of times for minutes, seconds at a time. He could have suffered brain damage or internal damage that they were unable to detect immediately after. He remained unconscious for the next eight days.
Long Stay
Burkett woke up and was kept under observation for another four days. Besides the usual trauma that one might expect from 44 separate restarts of one’s heart, he seemed none the worse for wear. He spent a total of 12 days in the hospital. He was sent home with a clean bill of health and a brand new outlook on life.
Moving On
Though it was harsh, Doctor Fazio had informed Burkett that most people who go through what he had sometimes have long-lasting effects, that is, if they even survive long at all. But Burkett kept going. He had literally died 44 times and he’d survived. He was going to keep living his life, not worry about the potential scythe hanging above his head.
Back on The Links
Less than a month after his near-death experience(s), Burkett was back on the links. He couldn’t let them go without him, not when there were dimes to be won. “I don’t think it’s changed me a lot,” he said of his experience. “I think the biggest change might be, I’ve attended church every day since I got out of the hospital.”
God’s Will
“It could have gone either way,” Burkett explained. “I don’t have any doubt I would have gone to heaven.” And since it went this way, Burkett is ready to do what he believes God would want him to do, that is, keep playing golf. “It is God’s will,” he said, chuckling. “It’s gonna be the way he wants it.”
Great For Everyone
Dr. Fazio said that Burkett’s amazing story has lifted the spirits of staff and patients alike in his hospital. His story of survival is a reminder that where there is life, there’s hope. He adds that “if you have faith, anything is possible.” But Burkett is hardly the first cardiac patient to defy the odds in recent years.
Miracles Happen
Diesel mechanic, Tony Yahle, had suffered a heart attack and doctors had been unable to revive him. After he was presumed dead, the nurses began preparing his body to be seen by the family, when they noticed something odd; he was showing signs of life. Five days later, he woke up fully.
A Son’s Directive
The doctors couldn’t find any congenital defects of any sort with his heart in their follow-up examination and lay the cause for his heart attack on a potential viral infection. In the end, he told the doctors that it was partially due to his teenage son’s last words to him before he died. “Dad, you’re not going to die today,'” the 18-year-old said, and so he didn’t.
