Dear Editor,

I have always been a person who will give credit where credit is due.

On February 7, 2014, I had the horrible misfortune of having a massive heart attack and by the grace of God and the powers to be, I am alive today to write this letter. I was preparing my birthday dinner for my family and sometime in the afternoon, I started to feel uncomfortable. I knew all too well the textbook symptoms of a heart attack. I called 911 immediately and explained to the operator (whom I later discovered her name is Octavia Stanford) I think I was having a heart attack. She immediately told me to take four low doses aspirin, which I did and I already was on oxygen we had at home for my wife. This 911 operator's calm, soothing professional voice did not leave me until the ambulance arrived. In my opinion, she is a highly trained professional and an asset to her profession and I have nothing but praise and gratitude for how she handled my urgent situation.

Once the ambulance was on the scene, along with an engine from our Rockdale County Fire and Rescue, I had the privilege and honor to be assisted by two highly trained emergency medical professionals, Kee Moss and Bryan Brantley. The first question I asked was if we were going to Rockdale Medical Center, knowing RMC as well as I do because my wife had always received excellent care for her cancer. Having already assessed the situation, the answer I received was "No. We are going to Emory midtown." This assessment to take me to Emory where they have an intervention center is one of the factors I attribute to me being alive today. During the ride to Emory, I stayed conscious. I focused on all the verbal traffic between the EMT's and the hospital keeping them abreast. Besides setting up an IV drip, I was given two nitro glycerin tablets five minutes apart which did help.

The minute we arrived at Emory they started the procedure to insert a stent into the right coronary artery that was completely blocked. For a lack of a better term, I did "go to sleep" six times. What I perceived as "going to sleep" was actually flatlining and I had to be brought back to life by electric shock six times.

Once I was finally stabilized and the procedure was completed, I did go to ICU for two days and then a regular cardiac room before being discharged.

I want the record to reflect that the two gentlemen I am referring to, Kee Moss and Bryan Brantley, who just happen to be driving an ambulance are not ambulance drivers. They are extremely well trained emergency medical professionals who I want to thank again for doing your jobs so well