The “silent heart attack” of a country star had no symptoms – until he collapsed on tour

Country Star Colt Ford does not remember the day he had a life -threatening heart attack.

He and his band performed on Whiskey Row, a location in Gilbert, Arizona, on April 4, 2024, but Ford told CBS News that he has no memory of the show. He also does not remember the moments after the show, when he returned to the tour bus and collapsed.

“One of my boys happened to be back on the bus and noticed that I was already sinking,” said Ford, a former professional golfer.

Ford had experienced a huge heart attack. His bandmates called for help and started performing CPR. First Responders took him to an area hospital, where he underwent an operation of 10 hours. He has held flat twice, said Colt, and his heart had to be shocked back.

After the operation he was transferred to the Mayo Clinic, where he was kept in a medically induced coma for eight days. It was also placed on extracorporal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO, a form of machine interunes that helps the heart and lungs.

No one, including Ford, hadn’t noticed Symptoms of the heart attack. Ford had undergone a check for his tour that found no problems, he said. He recently lost weight and thought he was in good condition and he was 53 years old at the time. His bandmates remembered the night as one of the best shows of their tour, and videos of the Night Show Ford Active on stage.

“I woke up eight days later and I don’t remember anything,” said Ford, now 54. “I had no concept of it.”

Heart attacks always have symptoms?

Heart attacks do not always have symptoms, according to Dr. Sawella Guseh, a cardiologist at Mass -General Brigham who was not involved in Ford’s Zorg. The phenomenon has not been studied closely, so the exact numbers of those who have and have no symptoms do not exist, he said, but silent heart attacks are a “considerable” number of cases.

Some groups are more susceptible to ‘silent heart attacks’, said Guseh. This includes people with diabetes, who may have nerve damage due to high blood sugar, which means that their nerves cannot warn their brains of the problems in the heart. Athletes and Those with high pain tolerance The symptoms may not notice, Guseh said.

Every shortness of breath After activities that normally do not make someone out of breath, must be considered a symptom, he said. Even something that apparently is not related to the heart system, such as toothache after exercise, a Draw your heart is in danger.

“I almost tell everyone, it’s not just chest pain, it’s all that can happen with effort between your ears and your navel,” said Guseh. “Your brain does not actually have a signature for the heart. The nerves from the heart that go to the brain are actually the same that come out of the stomach, so the brain is like” there is something wrong, but I don’t really know if that is my heart or something else. “

Most people who have a heart attack or heart episode experience things such as bust -colored or busy. More unusual symptoms can be pain in the neck and jaw or in their shoulder. Women can experience these kinds of symptoms earlier, CBS News has previously reported.

“I will usually say that when you go back and ask, you can find something that was a bit finished,” said Guseh. “But there are people true, yes, they actually felt absolutely nothing.”

“I don’t know how much more it can be”

Dr. Kwan S. Lee, Mayo Clinic’s cardiologist who led the Ford care team, said that the country singer probably experienced a sudden artery block, so that the heart can stop abruptly. Afterwards keeping alive required ‘the entire village’, Lee said. In addition to ECMO, Ford received several stents to open the blocked arteries in his heart. The weaning of him from ECMO took more work, Lee said, and his care team had to ensure that he did not get any infections that could be a danger.

When Ford opened his eyes in a coma after eight days, he was too weak to even lift a styrofoam, he told CBS News. His wife and son stood by his side and his doctor filled him in what had happened in recent days.

“I was really, really, very sick. I died twice,” said Ford. “My doctor said I was 1% of the 1%. I don’t know how much more it can be than that.”

Although he was awake, it was not the end of his journey.

Ford underwent a fasciotomy to illuminate the pressure that was built in his leg while he slept. He had also lost the feeling in one leg under the knee. After the circumstances were treated, he had to start with physiotherapy and start a pharmaceutical regime that would keep his heart stable even after he had left the hospital. Ford said that the process of “running again” includes learning, while he also focused on his mental health.

“I had never experienced anything like that. We have all had injuries. As a athlete and musician you learn to play through things, you play through pain. I have played shows with kidney stones,” Ford said. “But this wasn’t. I was helpless there for a while.”

Restore and return to music

Ford went home a few weeks after waking up the hospital. He continued cardiac rehabilitation and physiotherapy there. He has also encouraged to impose fans, friends and family to learn from his story and to take stock of their own health.

“All my friends, all my friends, they all go to the doctor,” said Ford. “Everyone thought,” Oh, Colt is doing well. He has lost all that weight. He is great. ” And then I wake up eight days later “

His goal, he said, was always to get back on stage. After almost a year of recovery, he is getting ready to do exactly that: within a few months he plans to join fellow musician Brent Lee Gilbert for a few shows.

He said he was dealing with fear with regard to return to action. It is something he has never experienced before, he said, but he hopes that the appearances will make it possible to “go a little further and see what we can do alone.”

During the recovery he is still time for music. On February 21, he released his first single since the heart attack. The song, “Hell out it”, had been almost complete when he collapsed, but the brush with death gave it a new meaning.

“That fear of the unknown is so real. You are told that when you are young, it all goes fast, and I didn’t believe that, you know? Like, oh, that’s just something that old people tell you,” Ford said. “And now it is as if, every day, I am from ‘Wow, you can pay better attention, because it can turn into an instant.’