Jason Bohn had no idea he was having a major heart attack at Honda
Jason Bohn had no idea he was having a heart attack.
The 42-year-old was experiencing the symptoms throughout his second round on Friday at The Honda Classic, but he thought they were related to the flu he battled two weeks prior during the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
“I would have thought having a heart attack was going to [be] like somebody was slapping me in the face saying, ‘You’re having a heart attack, you need to stop doing what you’re doing, you have to go to the hospital,’” Bohn said in an interview on “Fairways of Life” on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio on Monday. “But for me it wasn’t the case.”
After shooting 2-over 72 to make the cut on the number — an incredible feat unto itself — Bohn sought on-site medical staff. It was a good thing he did.
“I gotta tell you, the EMTs at the golf course, I mean, they totally saved my life,” he said. “They took an EKG when I got done after I signed my scorecard. They just told me that something wasn’t right. They said, ‘Hey, we’d like you to go to the hospital.’ And I thought, ‘Well, I’ll just go shower in my room and then I’ll drive myself to the hospital. I’ll be okay.’ And they were like, ‘No, no, we need to put you on a stretcher, we need to go to the hospital right now.’”
Bohn was found to have a 99 percent blockage of the left anterior descending artery, also called the “widow maker” artery because of its tendency to produce major heart attacks. A stent was inserted to help the blockage.
Doctors at the medical center told Bohn that had he collapsed during the round, they likely wouldn’t have been able to save his life.
“I got one hell of a mulligan, Matt,” Bohn said to host Matt Adams. “That’s all I can say.”
Bohn is uncertain of when he’ll be able to return to play, with his doctors telling him heart is still weak and blood pressure is low. He may be able to fly home to Georgia on Tuesday. When he does get back on the PGA Tour, Bohn hopes to return better than ever.
“So I know that this isn’t going to take me down and I’ve got a second chance,” he said. “Like I said, it’s always, when you drop that mulligan, that second ball is always better than the first ball. So I look forward to my return and I really feel like I’m going to come out of this a lot stronger than I have.”
Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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