5. The man who died of a heart attack while watching British comedy ‘The Goodies’
On 24 March 1975, Alex Mitchell, a 50-year-old bricklayer from King’s Lynn, literally died laughing while watching an episode of The Goodies. According to his wife, who was a witness, Mitchell was unable to stop laughing whilst watching a sketch in the episode “Kung Fu Kapers” in which Tim Brooke-Taylor, dressed as a kilted Scotsman, used a set of bagpipes to defend himself from a black pudding-wielding Bill Oddie (master of the ancient Lancastrian martial art “Ecky-Thump”) in a demonstration of the Scottish martial art of “Hoots-Toot-ochaye.” After twenty-five minutes of continuous laughter Mitchell finally slumped on the settee and died from heart failure.
His widow later sent the Goodies a letter thanking them for making Mitchell’s final moments so pleasant.
4. The blind woman who started seeing after having a heart attack
Joyce Urch, blind for 25 years, can suddenly see again after a heart attack. Since 1979, Joyce Urch had lived in a world of shadows and near-darkness, but was astonished to find her sight restored when she came round after being resuscitated. Doctors have been unable to explain what happened, but Mrs Urch, 74, was happy yesterday to put it down to a “miracle”.
3. The reporter who tweeted live his heart attack
White House correspondent Tommy Christopher with Mediaite.com may have made Social Network history as being the first person ever to update his or her Twitter page while having a heart attack. This claim is unverified and likely inaccurate, but nonetheless, it takes a courageous reporter to inform the public even in personal trying times.
Approximately at 6pm on Sunday afternoon Christopher wrote, “I gotta be me. Livetweeting my heart attack. Beat that!” Presumably a few minutes later the paramedics arrived to tell Christopher he will be stable after his crisis. An hour later Christopher joked about needing to own a cardiac cat, referencing a viral video in which a cat is trying to revive his dead feline friend. He also updated his followers about the pain he was feeling, “even after the morphine.”
2. The health guru who had a heart attack during a Talk Show
Jerome Irving Rodale was a proponent of healthy eating. He was an early advocate for organic farming and sustainable agriculture, founder of Organic Farming and Gardening magazine and Rodale Press.
After bragging that he would “live to 100, unless I’m run down by a a sugar-crazy taxi driver”, Rodale died of a heart attack while being interviewed on the Dick Cavett Show in 1971. Appearing fast asleep, Dick Cavett joked “Are we boring you, Mr. Rodale?” before discovering that his 72-year-old guest had indeed died. The show was never aired.
1. The doctor who was having a heart attack and got paged to his own emergency
A first aider who was suffering a suspected heart attack got a shock when he received a pager message sending him to his own medical emergency. Roger Flux (yes, really his name) works as a volunteer community responder for Hampshire Ambulance Service – a scheme in which volunteer medical workers in their local communities help ensure medical help reaches patients as quickly as possible.
The 66-year-old began experiencing chest pains while lying in bed at his New Forest home in March this year. His wife quickly called 999 as a precaution. Paramedics were on the scenes within minutes – at which point Mr Flux got a pager message scrambling him to an emergency at his own house. Mr Flux said: ‘I was on call that evening and during the middle of the night I had severe chest pains right across my chest and jaw.’ ‘In a couple of minutes the ambulance crews were here and investigating and in the meantime I asked my wife to get my response bag. While I was sitting down my pager went off, telling me to attend to a man with chest pains. Then I looked at the address – it was my own.’
Mr Flux says that later – after cardiac specialists at Southampton General Hospital decided it had been a false alarm –he saw the funny side of it. ‘At least it shows the system works.’
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