ST. CLOUD – There are some dates you just can't forget. For Joel Vogel, it's May 9, 2004.
Vogel describes that day — Mother's Day — as low key and uneventful. His daughter Kayla had come home from college to visit his wife, Laurie. They were working in the yard. And as the family prepared to sit and watch a spring thunderstorm roll in from the safety of their garage, the unthinkable happened — Vogel's arms started going numb. His fingers were tingling. He was having trouble breathing. He felt sick to his stomach.
He was having a heart attack.
"I was 46," he said.
A short and scary ambulance ride to St. Cloud Hospital — Vogel went into cardiac arrest — ended with Vogel being rushed into surgery to have six stents implanted.
And he was angry.
"Why me?" he remembers asking. "I'm too young. This shouldn't be me. I was playing full-court basketball with guys half my age on Wednesday nights. And I had a heart attack. Like, are you kidding me?"
Twelve years later, Vogel has learned to channel that frustration over his unexpected brush with death to help others in a similar situation through Mended Hearts. Founded in 1951 by Massachusetts heart surgeon Dr. Dwight Harken, the organization connects heart disease patients to create a network of support and hope. Volunteers share stories of what surgery and recovery feel like. The goal is to add a human dimension and perspective to a very scary situation.
