Being the Guardian of Your Health - A Special Post by Dave Stock

Intro by Skip Cohen

Although Dave Stock and I have shared a whole bunch of mutual friends over the years, we didn't officially meet in person until a Panasonic Luminary meeting in Sarasota in 2015. Starting his career as a sports photographer over forty years ago, today Team DSP is one of the country's very best experts at sports team photography. From monster size teams to individuals, they're the best, primarily working with schools and kids of all ages throughout the year.

There's another side of Dave that extends into his passion for imaging. From landscape to macro I'm not sure there's anything he hasn't photographed, as this macro shot of a bumble bee from the LUMIX Lounge demonstrates. But there's one more side of Dave I want to share in this special guest post. It's his passion to simply help.

The post below ran on Dave's Facebook page this morning. Obviously I asked him if it was okay to share before posting it here at SCU. Dave's message to all of us, no matter what our age, is about responsibility - to ourselves, our families and our friends.

Nobody can be a better guardian of our health than each of us!

And Dave...thanks for sharing buddy. We're all wishing you a speedy recovery!

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I am ashamed and embarrassed to admit that my stubbornness, arrogance, ignorance and cowardice almost claimed my life yesterday, but I share this hoping that my admission might save you or a loved one’s life.

I woke up at 3am with chest pain coupled with signs of gastric distress. I took some Alka-Seltzer and returned to sleep. The pain subsided, so I went out on a shoot and returned to the office until two guardian angels in the forms of my office mates Angie and Jamie insisted I pay a visit to a local urgent care clinic to get some medical attention. Absent of any of the other signs of heart attack (pain and numbness in the extremities, shortness of breath, sweating, etc.) I was convinced that I was just a good night’s sleep away from recovery.

But Jamie didn’t let up, prodding me yet again to take action, and somewhat reluctantly I did. Partly because it really was the smart thing to do, largely because I wanted to put an end to whatever worrying she might be experiencing. At 1:30 pm the doctor initially confirmed my self-diagnoses and ordered a “GI cocktail” which would quickly fix my problem.

It wasn’t until he ran 3 EKGs and saw the results from the blood sample that he knew I had experienced and was in the last stages of a ten hour long heart attack. Minutes later I was in the back of an ambulance, complete with lights and sirens, running red lights on the way to the ER. I had yet another attack while they were clearing my completely blocked right coronary artery.

The moral of this story is clear. If you or a loved one experiences any of the symptoms of a heart attack, you cannot go to a web site and determine if you should immediately dial 911 or simply down a couple Tums. Listen to your body, be brave enough to get a doctor’s opinion, even if you are afraid of what they may tell you.

Be your own guardian angel if you’re showing the signs, or be willing to intervene when somebody you care about is being stubborn or just plain dumb. Angie and Jamie did, and I thank them and God for that, they likely saved my life.

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