El Paso man share his health scare experience during Men’s Health Awareness month

June is Men’s Health Awareness Month. It’s a time to increase awareness about preventable health problems and encourage men and boys of all ages to visit their doctors’ for early detection of diseases including heart disease or prevention of heart attacks.

Imagine this, you’re at home playing the drums with your band. Next thing you know, you think you’re having a muscle spasm. Doctors tell you, you’ve just had a heart attack.

Well that’s exactly what happened to one El Paso man who’s grateful to be alive today.

Angelo Amoriello told ABC-7 he thought he has always been healthy.

But on one normal day, things took a turn. Amoriello started to feel pain in his chest and his jaw. His wife rushed him to the Hospital’s of Providence Northeast Campus Emergency Room.

After several tests and being kept overnight, ” the doctor comes in while my wife was there and a couple of good friends of mine, and he said ‘you just had a heart attack,'” Amoriello said.

Amoriello said doctors told him he was going to need open-heart surgery right away. “I’m going, what? He said, ‘you have 3 arteries (blocked). Your main artery is 99, almost 100 percent blocked. The other two are 98, 99 (percent blocked) and we have to get in there right away and get it done.'”

During Men’s Health Awareness Month, the Hospital’s of Providence is urging men of all ages to visit their doctors.

“They usually don’t get checked. They want to wait until last minute to get things done. And so right now what we’re trying to emphasize is that they get check up, general check ups, that they check they’re blood pressure, take there medications, (that) they follow up with their doctor,” said Elizabeth Mascorro, cardiac rehabilitation center at the Hospital’s of Providence Sierra Campus.

Amoriello agrees. “The key is if we feel something that’s just not quite there, we need to take action.”
Amoriello says he’s grateful for the staff at the hospitals of providence.

To learn more about the cardiac rehabilitation center at the Hospital’s of Providence Sierra Campus click here. To learn more about Men’s Health Awareness Month click here.