“Glenn Saved My Life”

NBC10 viewer Alan Aarons tells us that Chief Meteorologist Glenn "Hurricane" Schwartz saved his life.

"I would like to say, 'Thank You, Glenn. Your message was heard, and I'm living proof." 

Alan, 62, says he was home watching TV last week when Glenn described the symptoms that led him to double bypass heart surgery:

"Not a lot of pain. Just a little pressure and then a little out of breath, a little short of breath," Glenn said the night before his procedure.

Glenn is being very open about his health crisis because he wants to alert others that a heart attack isn't always obvious.

Alan says as he was watching, "It just hit home that's the way I've been feeling for two weeks." He says he felt out of breath just walking to the mailbox. "It really just woke me up."

Alan went to the emergency room at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, Pa., the morning after watching Glenn's story.

"They said, 'You're not going anywhere, and they did a procedure the very next day."

Cardiologist Rakesh Shah said Alan's main artery was 99-percent blocked, just like Glenn's.

"There is a great probability that the artery could have closed down abruptly and if it did that was a major heart attack waiting to happen," Dr. Shah says.

Alan and his wife Darlene believe Glenn's warning got Alan to the hospital fast enough to avoid major surgery. Dr. Shah inserted two stents into the artery, restoring blood flow to Alan's heart.

"I could have died. It's as simple as that," Alan says. Darlene says the thought of losing Alan makes her so grateful that he listened to Glenn and then acted. "He's got the gift. The gift of life and he wants to pass it on to others."

This afternoon from his hospital room, Glenn told us he's thrilled somebody heard his message.

"I'm ecstatic about somebody else being saved and not having to go through a heart attack."