Nick Poplaski’s story

When Nick Poplaski was feeling off at work, he thought he was just dehydrated. And when he woke up from a nightmare confused, and not recognizing his baby son, he thought he was having a panic attack.

He ended up in the hospital, his heart stopping more than once. At 35, he was having a heart attack.

“Everybody denies a heart attack, doesn’t matter the age group” said Mike Nolan, PA, Waterbury Hospital Cardiac Surgery Program Director.

Nick was active and young, so neither him nor his wife thought he could be having a heart attack. Still, while at home he took some aspirin, and given the alarming symptoms, his wife Cynthia called an ambulance.

“I was terrified,” Cynthia said.

When Nick arrived at the Waterbury Hospital ED, Dr. Essam Nakhla, cardiologist, confirmed that based on some of his symptoms and preliminary tests, he was, in fact, having a heart attack.

While definitive testing was in progress, Nick’s heart stopped. Testing showed that his heart was 99 percent blocked, and to save his life, Nick required open heart surgery.

A successful open heart triple bypass surgery was performed by Waterbury Hospital’s Cardiac Surgery Team lead by Dr. Daniel Fusco. He was brought to the Cardiac ICU to recover and from there he started his journey to a new life.

“I feel amazing,” Nick said.

He is back to his normal life with renewed purpose and lucky to be alive.