October 18, 2024
By Lane Kimble
MADISON, Wis. — Late one Friday night last summer, Carl Johnson woke up in agony.
“I’m on the floor on my hands and knees clutching my chest with just the worst chest pain you’ve ever felt in your life,” Johnson recalls.
His wife called 911 and got him to the hospital where doctors scanned Carl’s heart and discovered something was terribly wrong. Within days, Johnson was having open-heart surgery to repair a ruptured aorta, enlarged to the size of a Coke can, and damaged heart valve.
The young father and Stark Pavement Corporation president knows he’s incredibly lucky to be alive.
“I have a brand new, mechanical carbon-ceramic titanium valve that, when it’s nice and quiet you can even hear it tick, so it’s kind of a fun party trick,” Johnson said in his trademark tongue-in-cheek style.
Safe to say Johnson’s story quieted an energetic crowd of several hundred Thursday night enough to nearly hear that ticking.
Johnson was the guest speaker at the American Heart Association’s “Hard Hats With Heart” event, held in the Wisconsin Aviation hangar at the Dane County Regional Airport.
JT Engineering was the presenting sponsor and WTBA was one of several dozen additional sponsors.
The annual event raises money to research heart disease and cardiovascular issues thanks to generous construction industry members’ donations and auction bidding. It also provides contractors and employers with information to provide healthy food options, promote physical activity during breaks, implement stress-reducing programs and provide CPR education and training.
“I’m incredibly grateful to even be here talking to you guys… a lot of people aren’t so lucky,” Johnson said.
The AHA has helped make significant headway in saving lives during its 100 years in existence, but the construction industry is still vulnerable to cardiovascular risks.
One in three construction workers use tobacco, one in 25 have diabetes, and one in 25 (343,000) have cardiovascular disease, according to AHA data.
Johnson hopes his story encourages people to take care of their bodies, research and understand their family’s medical history, and–ultimately–listen to their heart.
“You can do everything right. You can have all the right lifestyle choices, you can do all the right things that they tell you to do and you can’t change your genetics,” Johnson said. “I really have to tip my cap and say thank you to the American Heart Association for continuing to do all this work to pour into improving the outcomes of patients like me.”
