Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.06.2010, Side 8

Visit us on the web at http://www.lh-inc.ca
8 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • 1 June 2010
Owner/Dealer rObert FriDFinnsOn
www.mymidtownford.com
100-1717 waverley street
waverley autO Mall
winnipeg, ManitOba r3t 6a9
1-800-665-1632
204-284-7650
Ed. Note: Ray Johnson just
received an award for his vol-
unteer work. He’s the living
example of no excuse is good
enough to not give back to your
community. With the coopera-
tion of the Heart and Stroke
Foundation of Manitoba, here
is his inspiring story.
Heart disease impacts people of all ages and spans across genera-
tions. Nobody knows that bet-
ter than Ray Johnson and his
three-year-old grandson, Atli,
of Portage la Prairie.
Both Ray and Atli have
had to fight their own personal
battles with cardiovascular
disease.
Ray was just 42 when he
first began experiencing heart
problems.
“We were returning from
a weekend with family when
I started having this dull ache
in my chest. I got to the point
where I couldn’t drive and had
to stand at the back of the mo-
tor home, hanging on to one of
the bunks,” he said.
Ray went immediately to
the Portage hospital where he
underwent a series of enzyme
tests and was sent to Winnipeg
for an angiogram. Soon after
he was told he had suffered a
minor heart attack.
“When I asked the doctor
why I was having a heart at-
tack at 42, his terse response
was, ‘you picked the wrong
parents.’”
This was upsetting news for
Ray and his wife Norma, who
knew heart disease was preva-
lent in the Johnson family; Ray
had three brothers with heart
problems and his father died of
a blood clot at just 67.
“Back in the ’50s when
you had hardening of the ar-
teries, you had hardening of
the arteries and nothing could
be done about it. I was given
a better chance than my father
had,” he said.
Ray was put on a beta
blocker and Aspirin® and told
by his doctor to start walking
and work his way up to run-
ning two miles a day. He was
able to keep his heart trouble
at bay mainly with a controlled
diet and daily exercise.
“At that time, there was no
talk of blood pressure control
or cholesterol assessment. I
just walked and ran everyday
in all kinds of weather and
got the two mile per day rou-
tine by spring. I had regular
angiograms done, but by the
third year of this I remember
the assistant remarked, ‘well
that was a waste of time,’ and
I guess that meant mission ac-
complished!”
It wasn’t until ten years
later, during that stressful time
at the end of the 1992 school
year when Ray, a principal and
math teacher, experienced the
return of that same dull ache.
He had further tests but wasn’t
diagnosed with unstable angina
until after his retirement in
1996. It was in December of
that year when Ray was treated
with an angioplasty with stent
procedure, which opened up
the blockage and allowed him
to be free of pain for some
time.
Another ten years later, in
2005, Ray was keeping busy
in his retirement working long
days driving truck for the po-
tato harvest, hunting and cut-
ting wood when, as he put it,
‘Madam Angina’ came back
to visit.
He went for an angio-
gram at St. Boniface Hospital
in Winnipeg and was told he
had three clogged arteries and
would require triple bypass
surgery. This news was dif-
ficult to take, as this was sup-
posed to be a joyous time; the
Johnson’s only daughter Rael-
ene Grimolfson was due for the
arrival of their first grandchild.
“I had been down the road
with dad and his heart in the
past and it was always a bit
nerve wracking,” said Rael-
ene. “But I knew my dad was
in good hands; my only disap-
pointment was that because I
was quite pregnant at the time,
I couldn’t be as much help as
usual with driving and visit-
ing,” she said.
Ray was placed on a wait-
ing list for bypass surgery, but
was told he needed to stay in
Winnipeg, so they stayed at
a friend’s house that night.
It was at around 2 a.m. when
Ray began experiencing chest
pains that wouldn’t go away.
He woke up Norma and told
her that they needed to go back
to the hospital.
“That’s when things really
went crazy,” said Ray. “We left
the house, locked the door, and
went to the car but the battery
was stone dead. We hadn’t tak-
en a key for the house we were
staying at so I dialed 911 on
my cell phone and told the dis-
patcher of the situation – chest
pains, locked out, dead car and
20 below. Her response was,
‘help is on the way.’”
Ray said he could hear the
sirens the minute he closed his
cell phone.
“That was the best thing
that could have happened to
us, actually, because I got
cared for right away by the
ambulance paramedics and
the hospital was ready for me
when I arrived.”
No longer required to be
on a waiting list, Johnson was
treated immediately with triple
bypass surgery. Ray’s daughter
Raelene and her husband Dar-
ren drove in to Winnipeg from
Portage to visit.
“I remember going up to
see him after his surgery and
we joked about how we are go-
ing to be in the hospital at the
same time, and as it turned out,
we were!” said Raelene, who
soon went into labour and was
admitted to a bed just one floor
up from her father.
“It was kind of cute,”
laughed Raelene. “The day Atli
was born, my dad was being
discharged, and my mom was
going up and down the elevator
trying to be with us both.”
Raelene, 37, had a normal
and healthy pregnancy, and it
wasn’t until she was in labour
that staff picked up an irregu-
larity in Atli’s heart rate.
Raelene was sent for an
emergency c-section and what
started out as a joyous occasion
quickly turned into a nightmare
for the new parents when they
learned that their newborn son
Atli was diagnosed with chaot-
ic atrial tachycardia (irregular
heart beat).
Atli was immediately
treated with an electric paddle
to restart or ‘flip’ his heart to
a normal rhythm. Doctors
stopped and started his heart
several times.
“It can be painful, so they
decided they wouldn’t do that
to him again until he was a few
ray Johnson:
The no excuse man
PhoTos: douG lITTle PhoToGraPhy
Ray Johnson
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     
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Hjemkomst Festival
June 25-27, 2010
Hjemkomst Center, 202 1st Ave N, Moorhead, MN
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