A man recalls his father's two heart attacks, a stent placement, and open-heart surgery. He witnessed the first attack around age 10, the same period his mother died at 23. His father is now approaching 80.
My dad has had 2 heart attacks and he has a stent and he— I think he's done open heart surgery. I mean, he's done it all, but he's about to turn 80 this year.
Right. So, okay. How old was he when he had his first heart issue?
Yeah, I was young. I was maybe 10 or 12. Wow.
So you lost mom at 23 and your dad was starting to have heart issues by the time you were 10?
By the time I was young. I remember pretty vividly being young in the hospital saying, wow, my dad had a heart attack, but he's still alive. But at that point I didn't know like how big of a deal. How would you at that age? Yeah. Yeah. Like I didn't know. I was just like, oh, is he okay? Yeah, he's still alive. Okay, well good. But looking back now, I'm like, wow. He's a very lucky man.
Yeah. And clinically as a cardiologist, I'm always fascinated with genetics of this and family history and all that. Because in reality, our parents, and I'll say something about our siblings too, but our parents are truly our pathfinders, right? So whatever happens to them doesn't mean it's going to happen to us. 100%. Mm-hmm. But stuff like heart attacks or cancers or things like that, if they get that, particularly if they have it at a young age, that's a big warning signal. Yeah. That, that could be in our cards too.
