Sailing to a heart attack

Sue and Bob Malinowski came to Williamsburg from Orland Park IL and took a spontaneous cruise on the York River. On a brisk and beautiful afternoon, Sue took the helm and quickly learned to sail. “Oh wow, this is amazing. I had no idea it’s so easy.” She had the boat heeling to 10 degrees in 8 mph winds.

Sailing to a heart attackBob has an excavation company and Sue is a hospital nurse. “I work in a narrow field of database information for heart attacks. There are basically two kinds of heart attacks. The first is relatively mild and you can recover without surgery. The second is called a STEMI, which stands for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. It will kill you within an hour if you don’t treat it quickly.”

An array of computer data on patients convinced her hospital to change how they treat heart attack victims. “Among other things, we reduced the average hospital stay by two days, which is significant.”

Sailing to a heart attackI was confused and asked the difference between the mild heart attack and the STEMI version. Bob piped up, “You don’t wake up next morning.”

We talked about downsizing homes, moving to warmer climates, changing jobs, extended travel, and other issues that near-retirees face. It was invigorating and enlightening, but nothing as eye-opening as having a STEMI heart attack.

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