Giving Back

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On March 21, 2022, as I was returning from a ski weekend with my son in Colorado, I suffered a plaque fracture in one of my main coronary vessels, causing a massive heart attack. My vessels are not very diseased - this was a bad luck event. 

On our way home from the airport, as my ability to breath worsened, I insisted my wife get me to the ER at the Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania. An hour later, as I was wheeled into the catheterization lab for an emergency procedure, my heart stopped and I went into full arrest. After 8 defibrillator shocks, 25 minutes of CPR and the ECMO unit hooked up to run my heart, I was resuscitated - the problem artery was cleared and 2 stents inserted. After 4 broken ribs, 2 punctured lungs, an induced coma for 9 days to let my heart recover and 15 days at HUP, I was able to go home and begin my road to recovery.

Timing is everything and amazing. I had a narrow window to get before the right people when the bomb went off. Just a little different timing and it is a very different story. Plane delay = death. Baggage claim delay = death. Traffic = death. Deciding to take my son home and figure it out from there = death. Plaque fracture an hour earlier = death. Going to a community hospital = death.

A few months later, as I was recovering physically, emotionally and spiritually, I had the privilege and honor of returning to the Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania to meet the ER and CICU teams who saved my life and cared for me as I recovered. My wife and I hosted a “thank you” lunch to express my deepest gratitude for what these medical professionals did for me, and what they gifted to me and my family. It was so amazing to be able to meet and speak to the people who gave me CPR to save my life and functionality and the doctors who shepherded me to survival. They do such valuable work with kindness, grace and humor. I am forever in their debt.

 
[LESSONS AND IMPACTS – MISSION, VALUES AND FORMING THIS COMPANY] 

Learn a little more about Dr. Jay Giri's work and research here

Read more about Ira's experience here.