Best Health Wishes for my Band Member who had a Heart Attack after singing with another band

Best Health Wishes for my Band Member who had a Heart Attack after singing with another band at Thunder In The Valley Motorcycle Festival.

This is a story I wish I was not writing; but, it has a happy ending so far.

My band member, John, who plays drums, keyboards, and sings all at the same time, is a highly respected, and super talented musician in the area. His vocals skills are amazing as he can sound like Frankie Valli, Louis Armstrong, Dwight Yoakam, Ronnie James Dio, Ozzy Osbourne, and many other singers. One singer he emulates extremely well is Danny Joe Brown of Molly Hatchet. There is a very good local band of our friends called Felix & The Hurricanes that plays some Molly Hatchet songs and invites John to sing with them when he is around.

My band headlined one of the stages at Thunder In The Valley Motorcycle Festival in Johnstown, PA on Thursday evening. Since we were off Friday and Saturday, John and I enjoyed going to see many other bands at the event. Felix & The Hurricanes performed Friday and Saturday and Felix said he would like John to sing with them on Saturday.

We were in the crowd Saturday and Felix asked him to come to the stage. John was so excited and happy to sing for the big crowd that he ran to the stage and our friends and I got close for photos and videos.

John's performance was great as you can see in the video. He got off the stage to rousing applause and while we were standing off to the side, he received many compliments. We were just talking and I turned to say something to him and he started to fall. As I grabbed his arm, he fell to the pavement. By some miracle, a cardiac nurse, who is a friend of Felix, was only a few feet away from John and immediately jumped to action to save him. Since there were already so many emergency personnel at the festival, he was being treated within seconds.

I felt helpless at that moment but knew he was in professional hands. After a few minutes, I heard the nurse say that he blinked his eyes and was responding. The band did the right thing and kept playing through the commotion to distract the crowd. John said that when they were putting him on the gurney that he heard the band playing and he was glad to hear them and he asked to make sure they got his Felix & The Hurricanes hat.

That nurse saved his life. The EMTs told John that he died twice and was brought back twice. He does not remember any of that and said it was like he just fell asleep. The ambulance got him to the hospital quickly and when I was parking my car, he called me from the ER and I said I was coming in. I took care of signing him in and waited for a diagnosis. They called me to a room and a heart surgeon informed John that they put two stents in him but that was not going to help and he would need quadruple bypass heart surgery Sunday morning and it was good he got there when he did and he would have a 98% to 99% chance of survival.

I am glad I was there with him the whole time to take care of things. Not only are we band members, we have been very good friends for a long time. Thankfully, I got his car to my house so it was okay too.

The surgery went very well and John is recovering now. The regional musical community has stepped up as always and many people, lots John does not even know, have expressed prayers, care, love, and concern for his health. The miracle is that it happened when and where it did and the right people were there at the right time. It could have been a much worse outcome if it happened elsewhere.

John is grateful to be alive and can't wait to perform as soon as he feels well enough to do so. We were joking that he had heart surgery and he is the guy who named our band Three Of Hearts and the song he sang before his heart attack was "Flirtin' With Disaster".

 

The nurse who saved his life told me today that she is a Cardiac Catherization Labratory Registered Nurse. What are the chances of that? A specialized heart nurse. She is a childhood friend of the guitarist from the band that he sang with and she was in from out of town.

 

The nurse who saved my band member's life told me she was not going to go to the motorcycle festival that day but her friend asked her to go and have some fun. She said something told her she should go. Boy, we are all so glad she decided to go.

Some good news so far. My band member had quadruple heart bypass surgery on Sunday, June 23rd and he was released from the hospital on Friday, June 28th. He is recovering at his brother's house and seems to be doing well. He asked to have his keyboards so he can play while he gets better.

I had to cancel four gigs so far and we are taking things slowly and will see what to do with future gigs. He is determined to play as soon as he feels up to it. I told him whenever he feels that he wants to sing and play keyboards, we have a lineup of some of the area's top drummers, who also sing, offering to fill in with us so he does not exert himself playing drums.

His recovery is going to take a long time and I told him not to push himself or overdo anything. His health and well being are the most important thing right now. We are glad he is alive and hope he can play again with no problems.