BARNEGAT, NJ — May 10, 2024 started out as a normal day for John Donza. The Barnegat resident and Jackson Memorial assistant softball coach was on a bus heading to Brick Memorial for a game. He remembers getting off the bus. And that’s it.
The next thing he knew, Donza woke up in a hospital bed, surrounded by machines, with his wife at his side. Two full weeks had passed.
Donza had experienced a heart attack – one known more commonly as the “widowmaker” heart attack, where as the name would suggest, many people do not make it out alive. But not only did Donza survive, he got to officiate his oldest daughter’s wedding this November.
“It’s such a remarkable story,” Dr. Renato Apolito, a cardiologist with Hackensack Meridian Health who operated on Donza, said. Donza, he told Patch, is part of a “very, very small group to have survived so well from something so serious.”
“When I woke up, I just remembered seeing my wife at the side of the bed, then my girls came in,” Donza told Patch in a phone interview. “I had no idea what happened to me.”
On that fateful day, Donza had been struggling to breathe. The trainer from Brick Memorial was alerted and he called an ambulance. “That’s one of the things the doctor said saved me,” Donza said. “If they didn’t call right away, there was nothing they could do.”
Since CPR was performed on Donza so quickly by professionals, his life was saved, Apolito said. “Without the professionals in the field, he would have less than one percent chance of meaningful survival.”
Once in the ambulance, Donza had to be resuscitated twice. It was sudden death, or arrhythmic death, according to Apolito. Donza was rushed to Ocean University Medical Center in Brick, where Apolito opened up his LAD, a major artery down the front of the heart that can close off and damage the heart.
Donza had another cardiac arrest at the end of that procedure.
He was transferred to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune to get more support – a bigger pump was needed, Apolito said.
A pacemaker and defibrillator were implanted in Donza’s chest. He stayed there for a few days before being discharged to a rehab center in Toms River. They were worried about his mental acuity after being out for so long.
But then, one of his daughters mentioned something about the New York Mets. Donza responded with something about the team from 1973. His daughter looked at his wife and said, “he’s going to be okay.”
Today, Donza says his heart is even stronger than it was before the attack. He was able to officiate his oldest daughter’s wedding on Nov. 3, and hopes to do the same when his youngest daughter gets married next July.
The first time he saw Apolito after recovering, the doctor asked Donza if he bought any lottery tickets. Donza said no, and asked why. Apolito responded “because you’re one lucky guy.”
“Without the help of the big guy upstairs and Apolito and his staff, I wouldn’t be here,” Donza said.
He praised the cardiac unit at Jersey Shore – which is even better now thanks to a new $45 million cardiovascular service suite that will open for patients by the end of December 2024.
“Anybody that’s lucky enough to go there, that’s giving them a real fighting chance to live,” Donza said.
Donza said he could only imagine how good it will be.
“But I don’t want to test it out,” Donza said. “I’m just happy to look at it.”
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
Click Here: soccer jackets