Heart Attacks Happen – Be Informed & Be Ready

My mother passed away, calmly, on July 4th, 2009 about 6 PM, at 81 years young. My mother did aerobics, yoga and weight lifting 5 days a week, played Mah Jong 2 nights, ate fairly healthy 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 Fort Lauderdale, Florida. My mother lived a very full life. She was calm, as she had accepted that her death was her own fault. It was, and still is, a tragedy.

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 tablets and, although she didn’t care for “green drinks” she did take the powder in capsule form.

My Mom, Gert Marks

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 generally means death within 5 years after diagnosis, as the medical community can do nothing to halt this disease.

Mom seemed to have the Pulmonary Fibrosis beat once she was on the ionized water – she amazed the lung doctors and defied the medical books! In her mid to late 70s, although her older brother and younger sister had already died from this disease, mom halted the progress AND THEN  increased her lung capacity by 16 ounces! The doctors told us that this is UNHEARD of in a woman her age – not only halting the disease but increasing lung capacity by that much! The only thing different she had been doing was drinking the high-alkaline ionized water (your lungs are mostly water). Although she still had Pulmonary Fibrosis, her coughing and mucus production was greatly reduced, her x-rays showed the disease was not progressing, and, the doctors were astounded. I had taken her to a highly esteemed lung specialist at the University of Miami Hospital (Dr. Marilyn Glassberg), who was interested in doing a study with the ionized water in her clinic but was so busy with patients, she never had the time.

Mom’s blood pressure was great, cholesterol was great, eyes (20/20!), 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 second, when Mom felt gastric 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. Women often have vague heart attack symptoms, not the well-known pain down the left arm.

Mom waited too long! She 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. Despite the severity of the heart attack and having waited too long, they thought she still had a chance to recover, since she was in such great shape.

Unfortunately, although Mom’s organs and systems slowly came back, 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 transmit the oxygen to her blood. The lung specialists all assured me this was from damage due to the heart attack, and had nothing to do with the Pulmonary Fibrosis! After 12 long days, and in good spirits, the doctor told us there was nothing more to do and the end would come soon. Mom knew she had waited too long and actually did this to herself, saying with her cute expression, “What was, was.” She was ready to go home to die. Yes, a nightmare and very surreal.

She also said, “It was fun while it lasted!” 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!!
Heart-Attack-SymptomsI 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, should they start feeling strange!

If you are reading this and either have Pulmonary Fibrosis or know someone who does, please share this article and ionized water with them. You just might save a life!

Leave a Reply