“If you have an heart, you can have an attack,” says James Tolbert, a renowned hairstylist/entrepreneur, and owner of James the Great Hair Salon located within the Florida Panhandle. Most people would believe that certain health conditions only affect the elderly and those who live a particularly unhealthy lifestyle but that wasn’t the case with James.
Nearly four years ago on November 18, 2017, James Tolbert, a 35-year-old man found himself clutching his chest, having shortness of breath, and feeling numbness on the left side of his body. James said, “All that week, up until that Saturday morning; I was having symptoms like shortness of breath and chest pains all week. I was just overlooking it because I thought it was acid reflux. And I was tired too, because I’ve been overworking myself and it got to the point that toward the end of the week, I had to sit down [in a chair to do my client’s hair]. I had no strength, and I kept pushing myself and working through the pain. Then on Friday, the pain became more intense. So Friday night, I never made it to my bed. I laid out on the floor at home.”
James said he reached out to his cousins who work in the medical field and told them he was in pain. But he thought it was his acid reflux acting up. “So they gave me one of those GI cocktails and it soothed it down some…But as soon as I woke up Saturday morning, I immediately had to jump up in get into my car. Because the left side of my body was numb and tingling. The pain was coming from the middle of my chest, all up to my shoulders, and alongside my arm.”
“I jumped up, and I wasn’t thinking of calling the ambulance or to call somebody. All I was thinking about was getting to the hospital, right now. Because I know this feeling, and I haven’t felt it before and it was intense. So I made it to Sacred Heart Hospital, and I ran… I mean I made it up to the counter, because it wasn’t any running then,” he chuckled. I was short of breath, and couldn’t breathe either, I was literally fighting for my breath. I was aching and fighting for my breathe. But I’m telling you, with all this pain I could still my right side of my body. It felt normal but the left side, my upper body, my shoulders, from my chest to the top of my arm it was achy.
They rushed me to the back, and the man drew my blood and said, ‘Sir, you’re having a heart attack right now.’ When he said that, I went to stand up and when I stood up my vision left me. I had my eyes open, but I couldn’t see nothing! It was black, it was black but my eyes were open. It was scary! So he was like ‘Sit down, calm down, and lay back on the table!’ And while I was laying there my vision came back but then the [staff] came in and rolled me out to do tests to see if I had any clogged arteries,” said Mr. Tolbert.
As the medical staff continued to access James’s health condition to find out what was causing his heart attack. He stated he remembered checking into the hospital around eight in the morning but after they checked his arteries with the blue iodine he slept for almost 12 hours.
“When I woke up at eight something that night, I was already in my hospital bed. And the pain was still there on my left side. Then the nurse came in and said they did not find any clogged arteries and they were going to run a few more tests to figure out what caused it [the heart attack] because they could never tell me what caused it, explained James.
‘They told me it could be stress-related, it could be, but they didn’t know. So I actually left the hospital not knowing what caused my heart to attack me or fail me. The first three days was the hardest. I was there for a whole week and I was really in pain for those first three days. But after the third day, they started telling me my tests were coming back normal. They gave me every test you can give anybody and they would come and draw blood three or four times a day. And not only are you hurting, then you start falling into depression when you’re in the hospital because I’m thinking, I’m 35-years-old why am I here for this? I felt weak in my body and I never felt that weak in my body like that ever before in all my life,” he says.
When I asked James how this experience changed his life, he told me “Now, I get anxiety about it. Now, if I have a hard chest pain or feel irritated in my chest, like it scares me because I don’t know [what it could be], it changes you and your way of life. Now you need to decipher, Lord is this an emergency or not? You know what I’m saying? If you are having chest pains,” he exclaimed.
James said the doctors weren’t able to tell him what caused his heart attack and the reasons were unknown when he left the hospital.
He said had a follow-up with a cardiologist and was given a checklist of food items to avoid. The cardiologist also performed some tests on James but he too found nothing to explain what caused his heart attack.
James says now he is more cautious about the foods he puts into his body. “I’m more cautious about my food intake and I also started walking.” When I asked James what was his lifestyle or exercise routine like prior to his heart attack he stated, “ To be honest, I was eating everything I could my hands upon. And I was exercising a little but not much. Maybe one day out of the week, I was just toning up around that time. But now I walk two to three miles and I have lost about 28 pounds since then,” says Mr. Tolbert.
“I’ve learned from this experience that we live in the unknown. And you need to stay on top of your health and be more conscious of it. And it doesn’t matter your age limit because this [having a heart attack] can happen to anybody. If you have a heart, then you can have an attack,” he exclaimed.
James says “You need to pay attention to your body. I worked up until Friday in pain and pushing myself and ignoring my body and ignoring the signs my body was giving me. I was feeling tightness in my chest, but I was also having a burning sensation too. So that’s what made me say this is my acid reflux but really my body was telling me to go get it checked. But I was steady working through it, steady trying to get my clients done.”
A heart attack is a serious condition and it usually occurs when a blood clot blocks flow to your heart. If you experience signs of heart attack such as tightness in your chest, fatigue, abnormal heartbeat, pain in the chest, neck or arms seek help immediately. Research shows that within the US more than three million people experience a heart attack every year.
James “The Great” Tolbert was very fortunate that he was able to get the medical assistance he needed, and although he was unable to find out what caused his heart attack he sums up his experience by saying, “Definitely pay attention to your body because it will tell you when you need to get some help.”
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