Evendale Detective Has Health Warning For Others

A life or death warning from a Tri-State police officer. It’s not about protecting your property or your family, but your heart.

Evendale police detective Doug Abrams is known for putting his heart into tackling some of the city’s toughest cases, but he had no idea his heart was in jeopardy.

“Basically, the doctor said we don’t see this in 40-year-olds that are walking around,” Abrams said. “We see this in 40-year-olds at their autopsy when we’re trying to figure out why they died.”

Abrams had no idea anything could be wrong. He works out five days a week and has never smoked.

“I felt fine, no chest pain, no tingling, nothing like that,” Abrams said.

But two weeks after that routine checkup, Abrams was undergoing a triple bypass. There’s a scar on his arm where doctors took an artery to fix three others that were 90 percent blocked.

According to the American Heart Association, almost 150,000 Americans killed by cardiovascular disease each year are under the age of 65. And one in 30 people under 40 has heart disease.

A stress test is how Abram’s problem was found. That screening is recommended at the age of 45 or for anybody 35 and over who may have one risk factor for heart disease, including smoking, people with a family history of heart disease or those with high blood pressure or cholesterol.

“It’s definitely a second chance for me,” Abrams said.

And now he has a message for others. “What have you done to make sure that what’s happened to me doesn’t happen to you?”

LINK/VIDEO

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