My mother passed away, calmly, on July 4th about 6 PM, at 81 years young. My mother did aerobics and weight lifting 5 days a week, played Mah Jong 2 nights, and packed up a suitcase and 4 gallons of ionized water and went to spend the weekend with her boyfriend  30 minutes away, on the beach in Florida. My mother lived a very full life.

Mom ate pretty well, drank 2-3 quarts of ionized water a day, along with her coffee and daily glass of red wine and with all her exercise, she was “in pretty good shape for an ol’ lady” she used to say! Mom also swallowed LOTS of vitamins with breakfast, lunch and dinner. She took Chlorella & Spirulina and, although she didn’t care for “green drinks” she did take the powder in capsule form.

My Mom, Gert Marks

All this, and my mother was on NO medication other than something for osteoporosis and some homeopathic formula for pain in her slightly osteo-arthritic ankle. She did have a lung condition “Pulmonary Fibrosis”, which usually means death within 5 years after diagnosis, but Mom had that beat with the ionized water – she amazed the lung doctors and defied the medical books. Her blood pressure was great, cholesterol was great, eyes, heart, blood – she kept up with all the periodic tests.

So what went wrong? Two things. First, somehow, there was an undetected build-up of plaque in ONE artery (the rest were perfectly clear), and, when Mom felt discomfort sometime late at night, she shrugged it off – until she realized she was in trouble and drove HERSELF to the hospital 6:50 in the morning.

She waited too long! Mom had heart attack information in three different places in her Florida condo describing the symptoms, instructions NOT to drive yourself, and, don’t wait. If you get to the hospital within 3 hours of symptoms starting, you have a much better chance. This was a fatal error for my mother.

They put a stent in, opened the artery and said she’d be in ICU for 2 days and probably have more energy than before! (We could hardly keep up with her as it was!) But then they realized how long she had waited – five hours? Six? Seven? More? The one artery that had plaque was 100% closed, while the rest were absolutely clear – they don’t usually see this – there is usually at least one other artery compromised. With the severity of the heart attack and having waited too long, they thought she had a chance to recover, since she was in such great shape.

Unfortunately, Mom’s organs and systems slowly came back, but over the 12 days she spent in cardiac ICU her lungs could not recover from the damage due to the heart attack and therefore the lungs would not transport the oxygen to her blood. After 12 long days, and in good spirits, the doctor told us there was nothing more to do and the end would be soon. Mom knew she had waited too long and did this to herself, saying with her cute expression, “What was, was.” She was ready to go home to die.

She also said, “While it lasted, it was fun!” and I implore you, you who are reading this, to remember some of what my mother believed – life is for the living, so have fun, despite the curves life might throw at you. And, “Laugh. It doesn’t do any good to cry.”

Please continue reading below and feel free to download this page: Heart Attack Symptoms  from our Resource Center and print out and give to those you love – you might save their life by them getting help sooner, rather than later. It turns out many women experience heart attack symptoms different than men, and, MANY PEOPLE WAIT TOO LONG!!
I print this on bright orange paper, so the folks I give it to will always remember the orange paper on their fridge, in their wallet, or both!