June 1st 2012 through June 4th I will be riding my bicycle from Seattle to Spokane in an effort to raise $$ for Sacred Heart Hospital. No big deal there, but there's more to the story.
On June 1st 2010 (two years earlier) shortly after a minor wrist operation I died 7 times. My wife (Tammy) had taken me home after the wrist operation and my heart just stopped later that evening. Tammy gave me CPR and called EMT, when she opened the door to the EMT team my heart stopped again and the EMT team took over. My heart stopped 5 more time on the way to hospital.
Four days later I woke up to find a defibrillator/pacemaker, made by Medtronic, in my chest. The story gets even better.
I work for Honeywell in Spokane as the Engineering Manager, and at the time of my "event" we made parts for Medtronic at our plant in Spokane Valley.
Here we are almost two years later and I decide to do a charity bicycle ride across WA State on my own to give back to the people who helped save me. I contacted Medtronic with the serial numbers that are on my Medtronic card and asked if it was possible to find out where the specific parts were made. Medtronic responded that my parts were indeed made by Honeywell in Spokane. As the Engineering Manager I'm responsible for some of the people and process's that saved my life - how neat (or common) is that?
I've been training every week for a few months now and Im ready and looking forward to the ride and this wonderful opportunity to give back.
