On the chilly evening of November 10, 2025, David B. Littrell found himself facing a night that would forever alter his understanding of healthcare and urgency. It started like any other day, waking up early to enjoy a cup of coffee with his wife before she left for her 5 a.m. shift. One thing on David’s to-do list was to address the heating issue in her Jeep, which he had been putting off for days because of the nice weather. But that evening, as cold winds began to blow, he knew he couldn’t delay it any longer.

By around 10:30 p.m., David was outside in the driveway, the wind biting through his clothes as he struggled with the Jeep. “I tried one last time to fix the heat,” he explained. “I stuck my head inside the door and was feeling the vents, but with gloves on, I really couldn’t feel any heat. I put my face in front of the vent, and sure enough, no heat—just cold air and the smell of antifreeze.” Frustrated, he slammed the hood down and went inside, where his wife was already in bed.

Sitting at the kitchen table that night, David began to feel strange. “I started feeling like I had indigestion, but it felt different. I take a daily tablet for that, and I rarely, if ever, get it,” he recalled. As the discomfort spread to his neck, face, teeth, eyes, ears, throat, and left arm, he knew something was wrong. “I thought, I’m just going to go on to bed and sleep it off, figuring I probably got some of that antifreeze on my face or inhaled it somehow,” he said, trying to dismiss the seriousness of the symptoms.

But the pain only got worse. “I woke my wife and told her I think I need to go to the ER; that I may have been poisoned by the antifreeze.” As they waited for their son to pick him up, David tried to convince himself he was fine. “I thought I started feeling better by walking around. I said I was fine and was going to try to get some sleep, but my wife stayed awake.” It was only after he lay down again that he felt terrible pain throughout his chest, face, neck, and left arm.

With no working vehicle at home and his mind racing, they called their son to take them to the emergency room. “At this point, we were about 35 minutes from when I started feeling bad,” David recounted. By the time they arrived, around an hour had passed since the initial symptoms began.

“I told the receptionist what brought me there so late in the night, and just saying the words ‘I’m having chest pains’ was all I needed to do to set the tone for the rest of my experience there,” he said. Immediately, a nurse was called, and David found himself in a wheelchair sprinting down the halls towards his room. “Once I was there, they immediately started hooking up the wires for the EKG to my chest,” he remembered.

In a whirlwind of activity, David was quickly told, “You’re not going home tonight; you’ve got some concerns.” Then came the moment that changed everything: “You are experiencing a heart attack. I have called the cardiac team to make them aware.” All of this had occurred within an hour and 15 minutes after the first pangs of discomfort hit.

The urgency of the situation was palpable as he was rolled into the procedure room. “They lifted me onto the table, and once done, the doctor showed me the difference in the artery structure on the screens. He told me the procedure was successful.” David felt a mix of relief and disbelief; he hadn’t thought he was having a heart attack until that very moment.

“I say all this in detail because I want to emphasize that my ignorance and nonchalant way of recognizing what was happening could have cost me my life. The sense of urgency from the moment I walked in until I was in my room was beyond words,” he reflected. “Throughout my time in the ER, I never once felt like just a number; I was treated with professionalism and care that I didn’t think I needed.”

David continued, “I want to thank every person who showed me compassion that night. To the cardiac team who had to be called in, to perform the procedure, thank you! To the nurse, thank you, you were right there for me the entire time throughout the procedure. The level of care I received from the ER team, the cardiac team, Dr. Iqbal, saved my life I'm certain. My wife told me that the entire time I was in the ER there never was one time that there wasn't a set of eyes on me monitoring every second I was there."

David’s experience was not just a close call; it was a lesson. “That Monday morning, having a heart attack was definitely not on my to-do list. But neither was dying. Without the brilliant minds and service of that hospital, I might have just had dying on that to-do list."

Join us as we continue to explore the importance of health awareness and the impact of compassionate care in our communities. David's story serves as a vital reminder of the need to be attentive to our bodies. If you are experiencing chest pain or other possible heart attack symptoms, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room right away. To learn more, visit us at lakecumberlandhospital.com/heart.