Dan Williams of Reston, Virginia, was under a lot of stress when he felt a pounding sensation in his chest. He thought it was probably pneumonia and knew he should go to the hospital to get checked out. But it was also just one more thing to worry about, on top of a mounting pile of professional and financial woes.
Williams worked in telecommunications sales and had been through a tumultuous stretch at work because he'd struggled to hit the sales quotas needed to keep his job. After losing everything in 2008 during the Great Recession, he knew exactly how hard it would be to lose his livelihood again – and it was on his mind constantly. He neglected his physical and emotional health while dealing with the all-consuming stress from his job.
Williams, who was 63 at the time, went to a veteran's hospital in West Virginia to get checked out. When he got there, a doctor examined him and said, "Well, you do have pneumonia. But you also had a heart attack last night.
" Williams was immediately transferred to a veteran's hospital in Washington, D.C., to undergo a routine procedure to insert a stent into a coronary artery to improve blood flow in his heart.
It turned out to be far from routine. The procedure triggered multiple heart attacks, requiring open-heart surgery. When Williams' family got to the hospital, the head surgeon told them he didn't expect Williams to survive the operation.
The surgery took nine hours. A major issue was internal bleeding; it was difficult to stop bec.
