It wasn't the herring – it was a heart attack. Good thing he remembered a video about symptoms.

今年5月，托尼和凯蒂飞往阿姆斯特丹庆祝他们的女儿贝特西的13岁生日.

最初的几天，他们在运河上漫步，参观了安妮·弗兰克的故居. 第三天, the family pedaled 18 miles into the Dutch countryside, past windmills and picturesque fishing villages.

托尼, a Wisconsin-based corporate communications speaker and video producer, 享受当地美食. 例如, 骑完自行车, he picked up a pickled herring sandwich, 配上洋葱和泡菜.

Back at the place where they were staying, 托尼 enjoyed the meal. 不久之后，当他感到胸部有强烈的压力时，他认为这是鲱鱼引起的胃灼热.

疼痛加剧了. Then his lower jaw was suddenly sore. He'd never experienced jaw pain like it before.

当他告诉凯蒂他的感受时，她说:“哦，可能是鲱鱼的缘故."

托尼 lay down to see if it would pass. 歇息的时候, 一个女人动着下巴，谈论着心脏病发作的画面在他眼前闪现. He couldn't remember where he'd seen it.

但在那一刻，他明白了. 他心脏病发作了.

托尼站起来找到了凯蒂. “你可能觉得这很疯狂，但我觉得我心脏病发作了，”他说. “我们应该打911."

“你在开玩笑吗?”?凯蒂说。.

A heart attack seemed unlikely given 托尼's overall health. At 51, 这位前大学运动员——他在南加州大学橄榄球队当了四年的跑龙套——每周锻炼三到四天，饮食健康.

托尼 shook his head; he wasn't joking.

凯蒂 looked up the 911 equivalent in the Netherlands. It's 112, and she dialed immediately. The operator spoke perfect English. 听到托尼的症状后，她说:“我马上派医护人员去."

当急救人员到达时, 他们做了心电图, 或心电图, to check the electrical signals in 托尼's heart. The test confirmed his suspicion: It was a heart attack.

有一个小问题. The stretcher wouldn't fit up the canal home's narrow staircase. 急救人员打电话给消防部门.

消防队员用梯子和特殊的担架将托尼从四楼的窗户降到了街道上. Cars trapped on the narrow road below honked incessantly.

虽然托尼知道在应对心脏病发作时分秒秒秒都很重要，但他仍然保持冷静. 他觉得自己走在了游戏的前面，因为他很快就被诊断出来了. He asked 凯蒂 to take pictures of the firefighters' device, sure that his dramatic rescue would make a good story one day.

在救护车里，凯蒂和托尼坐在后面，贝特西坐在副驾驶座上. 司机问她学校的情况和家里的生活，试图不去想她爸爸.

At the hospital, 托尼 underwent a procedure called a cardiac catheterization. A doctor threaded a catheter through blood vessels in his wrist to his heart. He cleared out a blockage in one small artery. But then he made a bigger discovery.

托尼有三条主要动脉堵塞，这些动脉为心脏提供富氧血液. Doctors said he probably needed triple bypass surgery. 这是一种为血液在堵塞的动脉周围流动创造新途径的手术.

The surgery didn't have to be done in the Netherlands, though. Because 托尼 wasn't imminently at risk of another heart attack, they said he could go home and see a cardiologist there.

在荷兰医院休养期间，托尼意识到他在哪里看到了那个女人的形象. 这是来自美国心脏协会的一段视频，主角是女演员伊丽莎白·班克斯. 托尼看见了 “只是有点心脏病发作” 去年秋天，他在一次大型营销会议的闭幕主题演讲中发表了讲话.

班克斯饰演一位职场妈妈，她突发心脏病，急着让孩子们准备上学. 在会议上, she spoke about how proud she was of the video, which teaches people about heart attack symptoms in women, 哪一点与男性不同.

The video wasn't made for 托尼's demographic, per say. 但这一直困扰着他. He hadn't realized jaw pain was a heart attack symptom.

托尼 was ready to leave the hospital three days after arriving. 然而，航空公司的政策导致他又等了几天，等待医生的批准.

他们充分利用了沙巴足球体育平台. After sending 贝琪 home to stay with a family friend, 托尼和凯蒂参观了海牙，看到了约翰内斯·维米尔的《沙巴足球体育平台》. 托尼慢慢来. He avoided any herring dishes, too. 以防万一.

终于，在托尼心脏病发作9天后，这对夫妇登上了回家的飞机.

凯蒂's eyes were locked on the flight map. She worried about where they would land if 托尼 had another heart attack, especially as they drifted over the Atlantic.

但是他们安全到家了.

托尼咨询了几位医生，才想出了对他来说最有意义的比赛计划. 8月, he underwent a successful quadruple bypass, 这意味着医生们比荷兰最初的诊断多了一条堵塞的动脉.

四天后托尼回家了. He plans to be homebound for a month to recover. 他已经开始每天散步四次，做一些基本的伸展运动和健美操.

In the meantime, the family's already healthy diet got healthier. 托尼 cut out meat and eats a plant-based diet. He's paying attention to how much saturated fat and sodium he consumes.

最近的血液检查显示，自从托尼在六月初改善饮食并开始服用胆固醇药物以来, his cholesterol levels have improved. He also learned an important fact: Heart disease runs in his family. One of his grandfathers died from a heart attack when 托尼 was a toddler.

托尼还联系了会议的组织者，在那里他看到了“只是一个小小的心脏病发作”的视频，并向他们表示感谢. 他让他们也感谢班克斯.

"That video," he said, "it saved my life."

发自内心的故事 记录心脏病和中风幸存者、护理人员和倡导者的鼓舞人心的旅程.