Heart attack victim helps others

AUSTIN (KXAN) - "It was really the last thing that I ever thought would happen to me, and I took good care of myself," said Cliff Redd, remembering his heart attack. "I walked two miles a day. I am the habitual story, the one that it wasn't supposed to happen to and it did."

A little over a year ago, Redd had a major heart attack, but, the executive director of the Long Center for the Performing Arts is still on the job. He credits the fast action and the cooperation of the emergency medical teams that helped him every step of the way.

"The challenge with coordinating care for heart attack survivors is there is so many pieces to the puzzle," said cardiologist Dr. Frank Zidar. "There are paramedics and emergency physicians, there are hospitals and doctors that all need to work together to work seamlessly similar to a trauma system -- to get the patient from their living room into the cardiac cathertization lab to get that artery open."

Making sure that coordination works to save lives is the focus of an American Heart Association effort called "Mission: Lifetime." Medical providers in Central Texas are working together to ensure that major heart attack victims will get the treatment they need, so there will be more people to live to tell about it like Redd.

"It has been an amazing and jubilant wake-up call for me about, one, how lucky I was, two, to honor the caregivers who made that happen that way, and three, to realize I got a second chance," said Redd.

Several factors led to Redd's survival. His partner knew the warning signs and called 911 right away. EMS got to his house in seven minutes and they had the life-saving equipment they needed.

The Heart Ball of Austin is Saturday at the Long Center at 6 p.m. Here are the warning signs of heart attacks, strokes and cardiac arrests.