{"id":52802,"date":"2011-12-23T08:16:53","date_gmt":"2011-12-23T13:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=52802"},"modified":"2011-12-23T09:53:26","modified_gmt":"2011-12-23T14:53:26","slug":"self-proclaimed-%e2%80%98living-miracle%e2%80%99-celebrates-his-caregivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2011\/12\/self-proclaimed-%e2%80%98living-miracle%e2%80%99-celebrates-his-caregivers\/","title":{"rendered":"Self-proclaimed \u2018Walking Miracle\u2019 Celebrates His Caregivers"},"content":{"rendered":"
[yframe url=’http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tFnW1JnkijM&list=HL1324585666&feature=mh_lolz’]<\/div>\n

Two months after a heart attack that nearly killed him, John Klimczak held a luncheon at the UConn Health Center to thank all those who helped treat and rehabilitate him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m upright, and not lying down, and that is largely due to you \u2013 not largely, 100 percent \u2013 due to you,\u201d Klimczak, 48, told the doctors, nurses, and others involved in his care. \u201cGod\u2019s amazing grace touched me on Oct. 12, in your hands. I am just beside myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oct. 12 was the day Klimczak felt pain in his left arm and chest and was taken by ambulance to John Dempsey Hospital. He was already in the emergency department when his heart stopped. He was unresponsive to CPR and defibrillation for more than a half-hour. With options nearly exhausted, a balloon pump was implanted in his leg in a desperate attempt to restore normal rhythm to his heart.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt supported his heart enough to provide some electrical stability,\u201d says Dr. Michael Azrin<\/a>, the interventional cardiologist who would perform an angioplasty once heart rhythm was restored. \u201cRemarkably, the resuscitation that was done was so effective that he\u2019s unbelievably untouched by this event. It\u2019s really gratifying.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>
From left: John, Michelle, Victoria and Nicholas Klimczak applaud the cardiology, emergency, and intensive care staff at the UConn Health Center. (Tina Encarnacion\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With his wife and two adolescent children, Klimczak brought a catered spread to the Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center<\/a> conference room Dec. 16, and showed a video montage of family, friends, and coworkers expressing their gratitude to his caregivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey paddled me. Fifteen times. No response. This went on for, what I\u2019m told, 35 minutes,\u201d Klimczak told his guests, fighting back tears. \u201cAnd if there\u2019s nothing else I want to do, it\u2019s convey my thanks for not stopping.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also presented framed plaques thanking the \u201ctrue life savers,\u201d and had custom key chains made that say \u201cI saved a life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody in medicine helps people,\u201d Azrin told the Klimczaks. \u201cBut there are few times in careers where you get such a palpable sense of appreciation of people and of how you truly do help, and I think it makes us all really aware of how much we help people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Follow\u00a0the UConn Health Center<\/a> on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a> and\u00a0YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two months after a heart attack that nearly killed him, a 48-year-old father of two held a luncheon at the UConn Health Center to thank all those involved in his care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":52804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1,70],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[57,2010],"class_list":["post-52802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized","category-video"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 05:38:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52802"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52807,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52802\/revisions\/52807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/52804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52802"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=52802"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=52802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}