After surviving heart attack, Las Cruces doctor urges families to stay on top of their health

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico - Dr. Steven Acosta died of a heart attack on Father's Day of 2020.

“He said, You’re going to have to call 911," recalled his wife, Jan. "“He immediately knew that he was having a heart attack.”

The emergency room doctor told ABC-7 he knew the very emergency medical technicians that took him to the hospital. He coded three times on June 21st, 2021.

“We prayed and we prayed and we prayed," Jan said. "They just said the more times he codes, the less chance he has to survive.”

“I was in total shock," said his daughter, Shelby. "When I got the call, I thought maybe a car accident or something had happened when they said it was my dad.”

Shelby was a nurse in Dallas at the time of her father's heart attack. After watching multiple patients code in her line of work, she was grateful that her father survived.

"I can't overstate how lucky I feel given that day," Shelby said. "We were praying. I said, ‘I will never take for granted a moment that I have again.'”

Dr. Acosta left his high stress emergency room job to start his own clinic in Las Cruces. Shelby moved back home and the whole family now works together at the clinic.

"The experience brought all of us closer," Jan said. "We really had to rely on each other in ways we never had before.”

“It started to coalesce into a story," Dr. Acosta explained. "I thought, ‘What better way to honor my family that’s stood behind me?'"

After documenting his experience and road to recovery, the doctor decided to write a book.

Click here to check out his book: Restored: Surviving to Live.