Becker talks heart attack and career

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Legislator Francis Becker spoke at the Valley Stream Chamber of Commerce’s luncheon on Sept. 16, telling members about the peaceful place he went to during his heart attack in May, and his take on politics after 20 years in the Nassau County Legislature.

Becker said he hoped that speaking about his heart attack would help raise awareness. “I know that for women, it’s different, but for men, we normally feel a little shortness of breath or numbness in our arm — none of that happened to me,” he said. “In fact, I hit 120 golf balls the day before at the driving range.”

Despite some hypertension, he said he was in good health. Becker was working to replace the carpeted floor in his den with tile on May 30, and went upstairs for a break. It was hot and humid that day, he remembered, and he drank two beers to cool down. He suddenly felt a pain in his chest “like you wouldn’t believe. It was like someone was driving a nail right there,” he said, pointing to his heart. “It was the worst pain I’d ever experienced.”

Before his daughter’s boyfriend drove him to the hospital, Becker paused for one last task. “I changed my underwear first,” he said, heeding advice from his mother about proper undergarment attire when an emergency arises. That gave the chamber members a laugh.

Becker said that, in hindsight, he should have dialed 911 and summoned the right people with the right equipment. He recalled “tremendous pain.” At South Nassau Communities Hospital, he was wheeled into an operating room with large screens in it, and he could see his heart beating on one, and watched a small tube being inserted into his heart through an artery. “They tell me it was really touch and go for me,” he said, adding that doctors told him his heart received 16 shocks from a defibrillator.

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