Medical emergency reminds PEBB member to listen to his body

"Last year I had a pulmonary embolism that started in my left calf and of course ended up in both lungs. I awoke on a Saturday morning not feeling well and told my wife I needed to go to the hospital. Unfortunately I didn't make it on my own; I passed out in a chair and awoke to my wife hollering at me and 911 was on the phone. My wife and daughter helped me to the floor where I laid until the fire department arrived a few minutes later. They loaded me on a gurney and took me to the ambulance, but before I even got out of the driveway, I coded twice and was revived. I remember arriving at the hospital, but things were a little fuzzy for me and that was the last thing I remember for about a week. I ended up having cardiac arrest another 10 times that day and after an hour of CPR, I was moved to the ICU where I was in a coma for a week. After awaking I learned that I had a 1 percent chance of surviving what had happened to my body: I received 26 units of blood, my body had an additional 13 liters of fluid, my right lung collapsed, most of my ribs were broken from the very long CPR, and I also had a 24-hour DNR order because of all the internal damage my body had and that I wouldn't survive if they had to do more CPR. I survived and spent 3 weeks in the hospital and also beat permanent liver and kidney damage from what my body had gone through. I am alive and well today because of God for one, trained medical professionals who chose to not give up on me, and great medical benefits. Listen to your body. All of this could have been avoided if I had listened to my body: the day before while at work, I felt tired, more than usual, and something inside told me to go to the clinic to get checked out ... I didn't listen. Will you when the time comes?"