Life is Precious

For those that know me, you know I do not watch football much anymore, but this morning my buddy shared with me the situation of Damar Hamlin from the Buffalo Bills. I searched and found the latest to gather an update and it has been on the back of my mind all day long. This afternoon I sat down and started to write about the New Year, but it just did not seem right. Why? Well many of you may know my situation and have heard the story before, but I’m sure many have not.

About 10 years ago, I was going through a normal workday. Rode my motorcycle to work nice and early, worked out for about an hour, got ready and started on my day. Nothing out of the ordinary, until sometime around 12PM. From what people have told me, I was a bit annoyed at something that was happening and went to go talk to a former boss and friend on the 3rd floor, so I went up the stairs, said hello to the man and sat down in his office. As he finished typing an email he turned to talk to me and commented that I did not look so good. Just moments later I collapsed hitting my face on the carpet and not recalling a thing from that point forward.

I’m told the man dialed for help, yelled for help down the hall and multiple people came to my aid, starting CPR and bringing a life saving Automated Electronic Defibrillator (AED) to my side. By the time to actual paramedics arrived I had already been surrounded by our company medical responders and received continuous CPR, along with 1-2 shocks from the AED. The paramedics then arrived and I received 3 shocks from the AED, finally bringing my heart to a more stable beat.

During this time my wife received some of the scariest phone calls from our HR leader, something along the lines of “Brian has had an incident,” followed by “Brian is breathing again.” I can only imagine the thoughts Shea had as she heard these words. Of course, the HR Leader did not have much to go by, nor could they hand out medical information in this situation, but she communicated what needed to be done to my loving wife. Who called her sister, who jumped in the car, and our Pastor’s wife, who immediately came to take care of the kids, along with my Pastor, who drove Shea to the hospital.

Sometime in all of those phone calls, my parents were informed and headed their way to the hospital. My wife recounts the time a bit like a blur, but from what I am told I was totally out of it, raising my arms, as if I was riding, and making strange motions, until I was finally put into a medically induced coma to allow my heart to recover and reset itself before I awoke.

By the next day I apparently started to wake up, although I remember pretty much nothing for the early part of it. As Shea and my family that all came to be with me recounted over and over again to me what had happened. At this point I had pretty much no memory at all, so if you went to the bathroom I thanked you when you returned from coming to see me. While my family is good to have fun with the situation, I’m sure they were scared as well, as one never knows the toll that lack of blood flow can have. Thankfully the evening I started to come to life a bit, I finally stopped crying every few minutes, got some rest and began to go through a battery of tests to determine what happened. I would spend a almost a week in the hospital, 2 months on short term disability from work

Simple answer, they really have no idea. Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) is what happened, NO it is NOT a heart attack as some of the media have described Hamlin’s situation, rather it is an electrical malfunction between the heart and the brain. In my situation, my heart started shaking at about 300 bpm, well above normal (on a good workout I can hit 180-190, but normally more around 130). The defibrillator resets that shake, forcing the brain and heart to work together again to get back to a normal rhythm. From all tests, there was nothing that led to it and nothing that could have predicted it. Despite my usually high cholesterol levels, I have no blockages and nothing that could have caused it.

From my research it is more common and deadly than many realize, particularly to young men, 95-99% do not survive. In total, when I did research several years ago about 400,000 people were affected by SCA per year and it was the number one killer in the United States. Hamlin was in the perfect position to receive the care he needed, as was I. Had this happened hours before when I was sitting behind my high cube walls I would probably not be here today or be severely brain damaged.

My message to you today is regardless of what is going on, life is precious. No matter how young and healthy you are, you never know when something may happen. One of the best parts of my story was something that was said to my wife right after I returned to church. “I was praying for you, because I knew Brian would be in heaven if they didn’t save him.” No truer words could’ve been spoken. I had people ask me if this changed my life or outlook at all, and to be honest, no it did not. At the time this happened I had already accepted Christ as my Savior (Romans 10:9-13) and was right in the center of what I believe was God’s will. My wife and I had just had our 2nd child (7 months old) and I was prioritizing and enjoying the time with my wife, and 2 sons. Now, did I want my life to end then, absolutely not, did I gain a great appreciation for my life, probably a little bit, but overall, I was right where God wanted me and continue to live my life in the best way I can to honor God and be with my family whenever I can. I’ve said it many times to many people, no one is going to write on your gravestone what project you delivered for work, or your level in a company. They will remember you for the person you have been, the impact you had on others and the life you lived for the Lord.

Life is precious, if the Damar Hamlin teaches you anything it should remind you that God’s word states in James 4:14 “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”

PS - The picture is 2 months after the events above. If you look at my face there is scar next to my eye that shows where my face hit the carpet that day on April 30, 2009.