Smoking and Heart Disease
Heart Health
Reshma, 30, Ohio [Female]
My father and one of his brothers (Dave) began smoking as teenagers, and were smoking 1-2 packs as adults. At 32, my father was diagnosed as a diabetic. His brother would be diagnosed 10 years later. One by one, 4 of my father's 5 brothers (one had already died really young from heart disease) and his 2 sisters were diagnosed as well. Over the years, my siblings and I would post signs all over the house to get them to quit smoking- and my father did quit for 5 years. But eventually stress, and temptation made him start again. In April of 2006, my dad's brother Dave was rushed to the hospital after collapsing at home. They rushed to do emergency bypass surgery. In his recovery room, there were signs from his surgeon that said "Never smoke again." The doctors told us that the surgery was so difficult and that my uncle's life was so touch and go in the hospital because the nicotine/effects of smoking had so damaged his arteries. Two days after my uncle Dave 's surgery, my dad's other brother, Bish, passed away from complications brought on by years of diabetes and heart disease. My father rushed to St. Louis to help my cousins prepare for Bish's funeral. My uncle Dave died the day before his brother's funeral from complications of surgery. His body was just not strong enough -because of years of smoking- to recover. My father hasn't touched a cigarette since. Because of the shock of my two uncles deaths due to complications related to smoking, diabetes, and heart disease, we forced my father to get a stress test in May. He failed the stress test and subsequent angiogram showed 3 blocked arteries. He underwent triple bypass surgery less than 2 months after his brothers' deaths. In December 2006, his sister in India underwent a routine angioplasty to clear a blockage in her artery. One month later, she died from complications of that surgery. My father and his younger sister are the only 2 remaining members of their family. They have lost 4 brothers and a sister to heart disease: Heart disease that could have been prevented had they had better control of their diabetes and refrained from smoking.
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