It's been one year since I died of cardiac arrest out in my back yard. 

Only 15%  of the folks that are revived by defibrillation survive to one year. I was not shocked back to life and no one was there to do CPR. I was wearing a heart monitor that my cardiologist had applied the day before. It recorded the arrest and my heart starting back. 

I just woke up. Got up off the ground and put away my push mower and went in the house. I took a shower, put a load of clothes on to wash, fixed and ate supper and then went to bed. I felt fine. I thought I had overheated and passed out.

I got a phone call the following day at 10pm from the monitor company letting me know that I had had a cardiac event and needed to call an ambulance. I called the ambulance at their request, but I told them I had never felt better. 

The ambulance came. I told the paramedics why I called. They said they couldn't find anything wrong. I said that the monitor company insisted I be taken to the ER by ambulance. So they took me. 

The ER doctor ran every test he  could think of and said he couldn't find anything wrong with my EKG, X-ray,  or lab-work. He admitted me to the main hospital in our area that was 40+ miles away. I was in the ER for 6 hours.

 I was admitted into a room in the cardiac unit at 6 am. I told them why I was admitted. My cardiologist office sent a PA to check on me and to see why I was admitted. I told her the story and told her I felt fine. She, the PA, said she would call the monitor company to see what was going on and what they meant by "cardiac event." 

She came back to my room in about 20 minutes and asked when I last ate. I said, "9pm."  She said, "That's great. As soon as I can get a crew here, you will go for a Heart Cath." 

My next question was, "Why?" She explained that the "event" was Cardiac Arrest and she wanted to know who revived me. I told her I thought I just fainted and no one was with me. 

I felt tired. I sat down in the yard. Then everything slowly went black. The next thing I knew was waking up looking at a beautiful blue sky. She said, "That's not possible, no one gets up without defibrillation from v-fib induced cardiac arrest." I told her that's what happened. 

Anyway, the crew came in 45 minutes and I was sent to the OR. The started the cath and suddenly I was waking up from sleep/anesthesia. The surgeon was applying deep compression to the area of my groin where the incision was. He told me I had a 99%  blockage in my "Widow Maker", the left anterior descending artery (LAD) and that he had inserted a  stint. He said I only had 68 % flow with the stint and that I had 20% blockage to the right side of my heart. He said he left the right side as it was. I told him that 68 % was better than nothing.  

After the surgery was horrible. I've never felt so bad in my life. I couldn't get my energy or stamina back. A couple of months later I started Cardiac Rehab for 3 months and it has almost given me my life back.  

I praise YHWH for getting me up that day. HE was the only one with me. I praise HIM for giving me the health care teams that took care of me over those next few months. I praise HIM for today and every day of my life.