Column: Serious as a Heart Attack
Paul Saginaw
Editor’s note: The following is an edited version of a letter that Paul Saginaw, co-founder of Zingerman’s, sent to his partners following a heart attack he suffered last month. Here at The Chronicle, we wish Paul all the best in his recovery, and thank him for sharing this cautionary tale.
Although hard for me to believe, I did, in fact, suffer a small heart attack. I also understand that if I do as I’ve been told, I am going to be okay.
I believe that it occurred on Thursday night during a tennis match when it felt like “an elephant was stepping on my chest” and someone was pulling my arms out of their sockets. (What’s scary is that this is exactly how it was described in the book Lori [Saginaw] brought home for me, on page 20: The No Bull Book on Heart Disease, Okner and Clorfene.)
Because I have the lethal combination of high tolerance to pain combined with low intelligence, I continued to play tennis for 2 1/2 hours more despite my partner’s willingness to forfeit. And although we lost, I have to say I played some of my best tennis. Probably due to my lacking the energy to over-hit the ball and having only enough in me to barely manage the basics. In retrospect, passing up the beer afterwards should have been a clue, but instead of the ER, I headed home and directly to bed. [Full Story]