March 24, 2024

American Heart Month may have wrapped up in February, but the importance of heart health should be taken seriously all year long – always. Just ask The Illuminating Company’s Jeff Golias.

As a Designer in Engineering Services, he was scheduled to visit a job site on Jan. 5. However, his shoulder was hurting so badly that he decided to forgo the appointment and stop by Mayfield Line Shop instead for some assistance.

“I parked my vehicle, came into the office and saw Regional Operations Line and Substation Supervisors Jason Basham and Bill Niederst there,” said Jeff. “My shoulder felt very painful at this point – like a bone spur, arthritis or a ripped tendon – and I expressed my concerns to them.”

Jason, a certified first aid instructor for more than a decade, began asking Jeff a series of questions to assess if he was having chest pains, feeling short winded, dizzy or lightheaded – the classic heart attack symptoms.

Jeff responded in the negative, that he was feeling only tremendous pain in his shoulder. He didn’t want to call a rescue squad, and was able to walk and talk, so Jason drove Jeff to the emergency room at nearby Hillcrest Hospital for evaluation. They phoned Jeff’s wife on the way to notify her, while Bill stayed at the line shop to keep Jason and Jeff’s managers aware of the situation.

At the hospital, the staff ran a quick electrocardiogram (EKG) test on Jeff and told him, “My friend, you’re having a heart attack.”

“They asked me the typical health questions – the same ones that Jason had reviewed with me at the line shop,” Jeff explained. “Still, I was not experiencing any of the usual signs of heart attack.”

Jason was relieved the two decided to take quick action, anyway, despite Jeff’s lack of conventional symptoms.

“I’m glad Jeff came into the shop and asked for help when he did,” added Jason. “When I saw him, the first thing I recognized was that he didn’t look normal. He wasn’t gasping for air or clutching his chest, but it was obvious something serious might be happening. Mayfield Service Center is so close to Hillcrest Hospital that we were able to quickly get there for treatment and he was given medical attention within five minutes of arrival.”

After his diagnosis in the emergency room, Jeff was rushed to the cardiac catheterization lab for a procedure to insert a stent in an identified blocked artery. He was admitted for a two-day stay and is thankful he chose to speak up when something felt amiss with his health.

Jeff says CEI is like a working family who all look out for each other – and expresses gratitude for the assistance he received from fellow employees that fateful day in January.

“If one person needs help, we don’t hesitate to step in at CEI,” said Jeff, who has known Jason and Bill for many years. “The moral of the story is, you can be at a healthy weight, eat the right foods, stay active and get regular checkups like I do – and something can still happen. Stay in touch with your body and if it doesn’t feel right, getting checked out is always the right thing to do.”

For more information on heart attack signs and symptoms, and tips to maintain a healthy heart, visit the American Heart Association website*.

*By clicking the website link in this article, you are entering a website maintained by an outside party, which is entirely responsible for the site’s content.