What might have been different about this picture...
This will always be a very emotional picture for me and all of my family. It was taken on Christmas Day in 2012. That means it was exactly 13 days after I came home from the hospital after a heart attack. On December 10, 2012, at 1:30 in the moring, I woke up to intense pain and crushing pressure in my chest. I was covered in sweat and immediately knew I was having a heart attack. I woke my wife, told her to call 9-1-1. I put some jeans on and went downstairs. The Bourbonnais Fire Dept ambulance arrived within 3 minutes and before I knew it, I was in the Riverside Medical Center emergency room getting hooked up to several monitors. Exactly 15 minutes after calling the ambulance, my heart went into ventricular tachycardia, or V-tach. This means that the heart is not beating like normal, it is vibrating. Essentially it's game over unless the ER team can shock the heart back to a normal rythym. I recall giving my youngest daughter a thumbs up sign the mere second before I blacked out with the V-tach.
I was shocked twice, I woke up, and as my heart was beating again they rushed me to the cath lab. A single stent was intalled and I spent the next 2 days in the hospital. Upon release on December 12, 2012, I became a vegetarian, went through about a month of rehab at the hospital and finally at the end of January 2013 was cleared to resume normal activities including work. I was 55 years old at the time.
My youngest daughter had not graduated from nursing school, my oldest daughter had not had our first grandson, my middle daughter would still be going on a once in a lifetime trip to New Zealand for a year, my son was still in college and had not gotten his bachelors degree or his masters degree and my home inspection business still had a few more years before it would really take off from 141 inspections in 2012 to over 600 in 2020. I eventually hired a really great young man and he does the majority of the inspections. My tagline was invented after the heart attack. "The home inspector with a heart"
The girls in this picture look just about the same today. My son has a little longer hair and works outdoors a lot so he has a scruffy little beard. My youngest daughter had a baby girl last summer. She's almost as big as my grandson who is 10 months older.
It seems crazy how life's little events and happenings seem pretty normal when they are happening, but looking back I realize all the really amazing things I would have missed if that night in December 2012 would have turned out differently. I take nothing for granted and am thrilled to be here every single day.
Scott Seaton-The Home Inspector With A Heart
SLS Home Inspections @815-644-6271
Inspecting homes like yours in the Kankakee, Will, Iroquois counties Illinois area since 2007.
Real Estate inspections with same day report delivery.
Mold and air quality testing.
FREE 90 day Homeowners Warranty. Included with every inspection.
FREE Sewergard protection for the first 90 days. covers up to $4000 of sewer or water main repairs.
FREE Recallchek appliance recall service. Included with every inspection.
FREE Moldsafe coverage on every inspection.
FREE Platinum Roof Protection Plan with 5 year leak repair coverage.
FREE $100,000 One Year NXT Structural warranty
18 month warranty available with every inspection
Visit my website at slshomeinspections.com or
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