MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — The pain came on quickly for John Zambrano.
“I had some real deep chest pains,” said the Mountlake Terrace City Councilman. “I took two aspirin, sat down and tried to rest a bit.”
He thought the pain would go away, as it had before, in two minutes or so.
Not this time.
The retired postal worker didn’t know it at the time, but he was having a heart attack.
He called for his wife, Janice, who was with him at home. She drove him to Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle.
“He had a 100 percent clog in the main artery, the left ventricle,” Janice Zambrano said. “Another 20 minutes, he probably wouldn’t be here.”
The Sept. 26 episode was the first heart attack for Zambrano, 66, who’s serving the last year of a four-year term on the council and is seeking re-election to a second term.
“The scary part about it (is) the week before, I had a stress test that was absolutely normal,” he said.
The stress test, also known as a treadmill test, monitors the heart rate and blood pressure and is said to be a good way to diagnose coronary artery disease, a heart attack precursor, according to information from the American Heart Association.
“I just have heart disease that is unpredictable and, consequently, when I have symptoms, I only have hours and minutes to get help,” Zambrano said.
Within 45 minutes of his arrival at the hospital, Zambrano was in surgery, where doctors were able to unclog the blocked artery, he said.
Zambrano said if he had it to do over again, he’d make sure either he or his wife dialed 911.
“Tell other people not to have their wives drive them to the hospital,” he said.
Oscar Halpert is editor for the Lynnwood-Mountlake Terrace Enterprise.
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