WESTLOCK – Christmas Day for most people is a joyous occasion, but for Westlock resident Dale Croteau this year, it was one he almost didn’t live to see.
At about 6 a.m. Christmas morning, Dec. 25, Croteau, 50, awoke to chest pain which was soon accompanied by a cold sweat, shortness of breath and nausea. Thoughts of Christmas Day supper and a family gathering soon gave way to a very serious, life-and- death-situation.
“I knew then that those were symptoms of a heart attack. I told my wife we had to call 9-1-1 or get me to the hospital,” said Croteau. “Time was of the essence. When I got to the hospital it was pretty severe.”
The nurse who met Croteau at the door immediately recognized what was happening and rushed him into the emergency department.
“She didn’t waste any time, she got me right into the room and right onto a stretcher with the ECG machine,” explained Croteau, adding the nurse then went for help. “They wheeled the cart beside my bed … I knew things were pretty serious and the pain was getting more severe and all of a sudden the nurse leaned right into my face and made a point very clear and said Dale, it's very important that you breath. You’re having a heart attack!”
The seriousness of the situation then sunk in, said Croteau, who praised the nurse and other staff attending that day in the ER. “She did a good job — she didn’t panic, she was very calm but she made it very clear to me what I had to do and I tried my best to do that until everything went black.”
Croteau was in and out of consciousness and may have flatlined, although he is unclear of exactly what happened. However, he does recall the drastic steps hospital staff had to take that day to save his life.
“I felt this force in my chest and I saw her arm move — that was the first shock,” said Croteau of the defibrillator. “Everything went black. I couldn’t hear anything, I couldn’t feel pain but my brain was still trying to figure out what was going on.”
After several shocks, staff revived and stabilized Croteau and paramedics took him via ambulance to the cardiac unit at Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, where he immediately underwent a procedure to have a stent inserted in his artery. By the next night (Dec. 26), the whirlwind of activity over the past 36 hours “had started to sink in” he said, adding he learned through a friend in the medical dispatch field, that he had what is often called “widow-maker” heart attack — an event with a slim chance of survival, even in a hospital setting.
He was expected to be in hospital between five and 30 days but was sent home just four days later after a clear ultrasound and is now on several medications. Although Croteau was a heavy smoker for most of his life with a less than perfect diet, he’s since made some positive changes.
“I’ve quit smoking, I’ve changed my diet — there’s a whole bunch of things I’ll be changing,” he said, noting the heart attack was a wake-up call for him to take his health more seriously. “There comes a point when you have to start thinking about (your health) or your body’s going to do it for you.
“I’m just so grateful that I got a second chance because a lot of people don’t, that go through that. So I need to make the best of it,” said Croteau. “It was an experience I hope I never go through again, for sure.”
