38-Year-Old Survives Emergency Triple Bypass, Sets Sights on 4-Day Running Challenge – Runner’s World

Angel Vazquez, 38, of Kissimmee, Florida, vividly remembers the moment last June when he first thought he was having a heart attack. He was working from home that day—his mom was there to take care of his daughters—when suddenly he started to feel terrible.

“I started to sweat profusely, I had trouble breathing, my heart was pounding, and I felt like I was about to faint,” he tells Runner’s World. “I didn’t want to freak anyone out, but I just had a gut feeling. My dad had two heart attacks and my uncle had a few as well.”

So he grabbed two aspirins, chewed them up, and waited, hoping that he would start to feel better. Eventually, though, he heeded his mom’s advice and headed to the ER.

“I could not stop sweating,” Vazquez says. “I had never sweat that much before. I could soak whole towels.”

So his mom, along with his stepdad and daughters, quickly loaded up into the car, and called his wife, Jayme, on the way to the hospital.

A Serious Diagnosis

An EKG—a test that measures the heart’s electrical activity—at the hospital revealed only small abnormalities, but because of his family history, his doctors kept him overnight. They wanted to test his blood for elevated protein levels that would reveal if he actually did experience a heart attack.

After the test, his cardiologist determined that he had a small heart attack, and reassured Vazquez and his wife that they shouldn’t be too worried. He was sent for a heart catheterization to determine how well his heart was working, and given the possibility that a stent would need to be put in.

It was supposed to be a 45-minute procedure, tops. So when he was not done two hours later, Vazquez’s wife knew something was wrong.

“I’m thinking the worst,” she tells Runner’s World.

It was much more serious than they expected: His doctors found that three-quarters of Vazquez’s arteries were blocked.

“The left main artery—also called ‘the widowmaker’—was over 90 percent blocked, the other left artery was 80 percent blocked, and my right main was 50 percent blocked,” he says. “It was a shock.”

His cardiologist couldn’t put stents in immediately, but inserted a balloon to temporarily relieve some of the blockage to help restore blood flow to his heart. Docs decided he would undergo a triple bypass the next morning.

“My heart surgeon said, ‘You’re not going to last more than two days, you’ll have massive heart attack or you’re going to die,’” he says. “I just remember looking at my wife, asking her if she remembers where the life insurance papers are.”

But his surgery was a success. Vazquez was in the ICU for seven days, and during that time, his surgical team encouraged him to get up and move as soon as possible.

“I couldn’t walk a couple steps without losing my breath. I had a walker. I had to rely on oxygen. It took days before I was well enough to come back home,” he says.

And once he was, he began a tough three-month recovery process, which included cardiac therapy. For two months, a “good day” meant he could take 10 to 15 steps with a walker.

Eventually, he added more steps in throughout his day, and didn’t need the walker by August of 2018. He was back to work and started walking around his neighborhood, eventually purchasing annual passes to Disney World and Universal Studios, where he would go and walk the parks. (He wasn’t able to ride a roller coaster for a year because of his heart condition.)

“Once I’d leave the office, I’d just drive 20 minutes to Universal and do laps at night. On the weekends, my family would join me,” Vazquez says. “I was able to get a lot of energy back, and was able to walk for longer periods of time.”

Running to Recovery

By December 2018, he decided he wanted to add a bit of running into his routine.

“I started trying to jog for a couple seconds, and was gradually able to extend the length I was spending in running,” he says.

Once he was able to walk 14 to 18 miles with some running in the mix, he felt comfortable signing up for a half marathon. He consulted his doctors and underwent a stress test to make sure his heart was able. Once he got the green light, he went for it.

He finished his first half marathon in January of 2019.

“In hindsight, I probably took a big leap there. I was definitely undertrained, but I was able to finish,” he says. “I was crawling to the finish line and in quite a bit of pain, but the feeling of finishing was amazing. I immediately signed up for more.”

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He connected with a local running group, My Running Buddies, which helped him with his training and introduced him to training plans.

“I learned more about running, got better advice and different training plans. They suggested I jump back to 5Ks or 10Ks. My body was just beaten up,” he says.

He did, but he’s still looking to go longer—but in a smart way: He’s planning to run his first full marathon in December 2020, and plans to follow that up with the Dopey Challenge in January 2020, a 48.6-mile challenge over four consecutive days at Walt Disney World.

To train for it, he currently running 18 to 22 miles a week, and is working on upping his mileage gradually each week. He’ll also be working with a running coach to help him get to the level—and he knows he can complete it.

“I feel like running has added time back onto my life—more time to spend with my wife and my daughters. It puts me in such a great mood. I wasn’t really doing any physical activity before heart attack, and now I can’t imagine my life without it,” he says. “I’m excited about training runs coming up. I keep a training calendar next to my bed. I know what it is like to barely be able to move, and I don’t take any run for granted.”

Emily Shiffer is a former digital web producer for Men’s Health and Prevention, and is currently a freelancer writer specializing in health, weight loss, and fitness.