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I have been teaching World History and coaching football and softball at Linden High School the past 38 years. I served as its head football coach for twenty two of those years. On January 13th, 2003, I suffered a heart attack after softball practice. I was taken to St Joseph's Medical Center in Stockton, Ca by Ambulance. A stent was placed in my heart, and I was put in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. A nurse weighed me at 360 lbs. Two mornings later, while still in the CICU, I suffered a major heart attack. The responding nurses saved my life. Another stent was put in my heart. I was told that I had to lose weight or die. Over the next 8 months, I had two more stents, lost 170 lbs, and failed 4 cardiolite stress tests. In August of 2003, after my 5th failed stress test, my cardiologist told me I needed open heart surgery. I told him that this wasn't a good time, as we were a week into football, and that school was about to begin. He said, that actually, this was the best time, for without surgery, I had no time left at all. On August 26th, I had a triple by-pass open heart surgery. Upon waking up from surgery, I could tell my world had changed for the better. I was back on the football field coaching six days later. I now run 3-4 miles a day, my shirt size has gone from a size XXXL to a size L, from a pant size of 46 to a size 32. In 2004, my softball team went 26-4, I was selected as the State of California's High School Softball 'Coach of the Year', and this past year my tem went 29-0, and we were the California Division IV State Champions. I participated in the American Heart Association's heartwalk and raised over $10,000, and was selected as the San Joaquin County's 'Volunteer of the Year'. I spoke at the Food4-Less Pro-Am Golf Tournament in 2005, and at the AHA/St Joseph's Medical Centers' 'Affair of the Heart' silent auction that raised over $90,000 in one evening. At halftime of our first football game last year, I had six young children, all afflicted with heart disease, address the crowd for the AHA. One of the speakers, a ten year old girl, was in need of a heart. On Thanksgiving Day, 2005, she received a new heart. On Saturday mornings, I speak to heart patients going into and out of surgery, telling them that better days are ahead. I belive that when I had my second heart attack at St Jospeh's Medical Center, I was surroudned by angels disguised as nurses. Joan Lunden wrote a book called 'A Bend in the Road is not the End of the Road'.....she hit the nail right on the head. Mark Miller
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