Dustin Shivar and his wife moved to Colorado from North Carolina just over two years ago to experience the outdoors.
“We’re hiking, usually in the Rocky Mountain National Park area or Indian Peaks Wilderness area,” said Shivar. “We climbed a couple of 14ers, as well.”
The 37-year-old lives in Littleton and likes to stay in shape by eating healthy, along with high-intensity interval training three or four days a week.
“Resistance activities, conditioning activities, with a fixed interval of work followed by a quick interval of rest,” said Shivar.
He ate oatmeal most mornings and ate a salad for lunch more afternoons.
But on July 26, his life took an unexpected turn.
“I worked out at the gym, did a very strong, high-intensity interval training workout there. Came home following that. Took a shower. While I was in the shower, I started feeling extremely tired and had a sensation of kind of being electrocuted all over my entire body," Shivar said.
It was hard for him to catch his breath. He was short-winded and taking shallow breaths.
His wife took him to the Swedish Southwest emergency room where found out he was having a heart attack.
“Within 20 minutes of that happening, I had a stent in my heart and was spending the next two days in the intensive care unit trying to make sense out of everything that happened,” said Shivar.
The Centers for Disease Control says about 735,000 American have a heart attack every year and about 525,000 of those are a first heart attack.
Harvard Medical School says as many as 4 to 10 percent of all heart attacks happen before age 45. Most of those who have heart attacks that young are men. Symptoms include chest pain or discomfort, pain or discomfort in one or both arms, neck, jaw, back and stomach and shortness of breath. Shivar said he was in shock, disbelief, fear and worry.
“Pretty much the gambit of any negative emotion that you could think of anyone experiencing in a very vulnerable moment like that,” said Shivar.
For Shivar - the guy who followed all the advice to eat healthily, exercise and manage stress - genetics was his heart health blind spot. He has a history of heart disease on his mom's side of the family. Now, he wants other people to know that asking questions can save a life.
“If you’re aware of any family history of heart disease, stroke... please, take my experience as something to motivate you to consult with a physician, have conversations with your family members, (and) find out as much as you can, so you can make the best choices for you, and hopefully limit as much as you can the possibility of having something like this,” said Shivar.
The doctor hopes Shivar will be back in the gym in four to six weeks, so he can enjoy more of what Colorado has to offer.
“I would like to climb one 14er before the season's out, but we will have to just see how things go,” said Shivar.
