I have to start by noting that this happened more than a week ago; do not be alarmed. You would think that a description of a massive heart attack would require another TMI warning, but nothing of the sort. It was completely unhorrifying. That's what's so scary.
In fact, I already described this already on this blog, except that I was missing the crucial information that it was a heart attack. I was sitting next to him the entire time. All I observed was Dad burping a lot and then coughing. The nurse came in and noticed that he was having trouble breathing. She checked him with a stethoscope and asked him to take a deep breath and he said he couldn't. That's when she turned in a code blue and it all hit the fan, complete with the deputy hospital administrator turning up.
We didn't find out for days that it was most likely a massive heart attack. He never had any unusual pain. Apparently, diabetics can have heart attacks without knowing it, and apparently he had already had one or more in the past. And this is why, though we're happy he's out of ICU, we're very nervous. We want to be with him all the time to keep an eye on him, but when you're sitting next to him and he can have a heart attack and you have no clue, what do you do? You treasure every moment.
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