Mr. Sonoda's experience
1. Lifestyle up to and situation on the day of the cardiac arrest
I had a heart attack on December 15th, 2009. It was a pretty cold day. As for my health situation until then, I had suffered from hyperlipidemia, so-called metabolic syndrome, since ten years before. I was going through metabolic syndrome treatment. My neutral fat was 300. I ate oily food and was fat, I didn't exercise and I smoked. I found out later that the risk of having a heart attack had been 30 times more than for normal people. In such a situation, my heart suddenly stopped without any symptoms.
Newspaper journalists work irregular hours. Sometimes we stay overnight in the office, sometimes we travel to accident and crime scenes, and sometimes we don't get any sleep for a few days in a row. I was really busy when I was young. Well, I always had a tough work schedule. I was 48 when I had the attack. I was 24 when I became a photographer for a newspaper company. I was 48 when I had the attack, so I had been working a tough schedule for 24 years, and on the day I had the attack, I was covering an astronomical phenomenon called "The Leonids" with the photography department's astronomical team. I had hardly slept at all on the night of December 14th. A few younger colleagues took the photos while I remained in Tokyo and kept in touch with the progress of the report by phone. I was at home on the phone until dawn, and after the photo shoot finished, I wrote the article. I wrote the article, had a nap and then published it in the evening newspaper. I sent the photos and article for publishing. That would start from about 8 or 9 in the morning, so I napped for a few hours and then went to the office. With the flow of that morning, by noon we had drawn up what to publish in the evening newspaper, so as a celebration I went out for sushi with the younger colleagues who had taken the photos. It was like, "Good photos. Good work." After I had sushi, I began to feel sick at around 2 p.m. I felt my chest itch and I felt heavy. Something felt wrong. My chest felt stuffy. That was the symptom. I thought something wasn't right. There was an overnight room at the back of the photography department. In the room were cots, like bunk beds, where a few people at a time could stay overnight. I lay down in there, still feeling sick, but somehow I thought it would be better if I went to the clinic so they could do something for me if I got worse or fainted. I don't know why, but my instinct told me to go. I had the choice to stay in the overnight room, though. I must have known that something was wrong. I was so sick that I could not even answer when my young colleagues asked me how I was. It really hurt and I knew I had to explain how bad it was, but I felt that it was better go to the clinic first. I walked to the clinic by myself, and explained the symptoms. They took an electrocardiogram, but the symptoms had improved a little by then, so no trace of cardiac infarction appeared on the electrocardiogram. While sitting on the sofa, I started to feel sick again, so they took my electrocardiogram once more. Then the nurse turned pale and rushed to call the doctor. On seeing her rush off shouting for the doctor, I muttered to myself, "I knew something was wrong." Then, I lost consciousness.
2. When I awoke
The next time I woke up, it was to find myself in a rather tight situation, rolled up and being carried in bed linen. They were moving me from the bed at the clinic to a stretcher. As I was heavy, five or six people were around the bed trying to move me with the bed linen, saying, "Oh, he's so heavy", and that's when I realized how heavy I was. After they used the AED on me, and then the clinic doctor and one of my senior colleagues got in the ambulance with me. I said, "Something was wrong, right?" and they answered, "You have had a cardiac infarction." Their words scared me as I thought, "cardiac infraction is a fatal disease, isn't it?" I remember feeling sick and going to the clinic, but I had no idea that it was my heart. I often heard of others having cardiac arrests and I would see them at accident scenes, but I never imagined that it would happen to me. At that moment, nothing hurt. I just remember that I felt the tip of my tongue tingle after the AED and wondered if it was because of the electricity.
3. What I thought about my family at the hospital
After I awoke, I thought I should thank my wife, in case I died. As soon as I saw my wife at the hospital, I felt that my life would be over soon. I felt ready and satisfied because I had seen my wife at the end.
4. What I feel now
I was diagnosed as having had a cardiac infraction, a condition with a mortality rate of 50%. If I had been commuting and had cardiac infraction while sleeping on the subway, I might have died without anybody even noticing. They told me I might not have survived if I was on the subway or on the way to the office, because for every minute after an attack the lifesaving rate falls by 10%, which means a patient will die in 10 minutes. I was lucky that I happened to have the heart attack in the company clinic. While I was in the hospital, I often thought about why I did not die. For better or for worse, in the end everyone is destined to meet with something like an accident or a disease, so I thought about why I had not died, and I asked myself, "What was it that I had left to do?". I did not miss working in the field but I felt that there must have been something I still had to do. My task now is to find out what I should do with the rest of this life I so nearly lost. Even supposing it was just a coincidence that I survived, I'm not that religious, but supposing there is a god, what does He want me to do now? I thought about those sorts of things, too.
5. What I can do now
After I had the attack, what did I think I should do in the future? Well, up until I had the attack, I had been confidence about my state of health, because there were many at work who were fatter and more unhealthy than myself. There are people at work who are walking on a tight rope and could fall off at any time. The same thing can be said of society, and by sharing my experience I want these people to realize that people who think they are healthy can suddenly have an attack. Just my own humble contribution to public awareness. Even if only a few people recognize the danger, that will be enough to give my survival meaning. I am not consciously trying to contribute to society, but I regret that I did not notice my health condition before I had the attack. In my case, I left my hyperlipidemia for a decade and my health got worse little by little, until I ended up with a clogged coronary artery. Come to think of it, I had had many chances to prevent it from happening. I often say, "I had an attack, so you should be careful, too," to people at work who are fatter and more unhealthy than me, so that they will realize what they have been ignoring. Nevertheless, I guess they probably won't learn until they actually get ill. Sometime I see people collapsing while commuting to and from work. One day I saw a high school girl collapsing on the platform when I was changing trains on my way to the office. She might have been anemic because she was a girl, but at that moment I wondered where the closest AED was if it was a cardiac infarction. It was located near the station office, which was a few minutes away. I could say it would take five minutes even without crowds. As it would take time to find and bring it, if it was a cardiac infarction the lifesaving rate would drop by 50%. It is really hard to raise awareness of health in those who seem to be healthy now, but still, I thought it was better to keep trying. That may help a few people to live longer. After my case, a senior colleague in the Foreign News Department died from the same disease in the changing room of an outdoor hot spring, and nobody noticed for 20 minutes. So, there is only fine line between life and death. So some are lucky like I was and happen to have an attack at a clinic with doctors, nurses, an AED and an electrocardiogram on hand, while some, of course, are unlucky and have an attack where nobody notices and their lifesaving rate drops. What I am trying is to fill the gap, so that if something like that happens when there are people around who already have some information about heart attacks, they will be able to think about what they can do for the person who has collapsed. If it helps raise public awareness, it will give just a little meaning to the fact that my own life was saved. What I'm saying through my story is, "You are not an exception," that is, I think people need to think about the fact that they don't know if they could be a lifesaver or someone who needs to be saved, but they need to think about being on bothsides.
What the word "resuscitation" means to me
A feeling of gratitude
