A heart attack while shoveling snow. Then another emergency during cardiac rehab.

Looking out the window of his home in Troy, New York, on a Friday night, Kyle Wessels made note of his first chore the next day: shoveling snow.

On Saturday morning, he saw that only a few inches of snow had fallen, but it was the wet, heavy kind.

Having grown up in Troy, then-47-year-old Wessels knew the drill. He grabbed his snow blower and shovel and got to work. A lifelong athlete, Wessels was in good shape.

After 40 minutes, he took a break. This was normal.

He went into the house, sweating and overheated, much more than normal. He ripped off his jacket and sweatshirt. It only got worse. Out of nowhere, he felt an intense pressure on his chest.

His wife, Michelle Wessels, usually did grocery shopping at this hour. That morning, though, she was still home. He screamed her name, then dropped to the floor in pain.

When she arrived, he forced out the words, "There's something going on."

Michelle called 911. The EMTs arrived in under five minutes.

"You're having a heart attack," one of them said after hooking him up to a monitor.

Kyle could still walk, though barely. Two EMTs held him up by his armpits as they guided him to the ambulance. That's the last thing Kyle remembers about that morning.

One of the main arteries in his heart was blocked, preventing normal blood flow. Doctors inserted two stents to open the blockage. They also put him in an induced coma to let his body heal from the trauma, and they implanted a pump to keep his heart beating properly.

The next thing Kyle remembers is waking up in the hospital, connected to a ventilator, with tubes running out of his arms.

Once he could talk, he asked Michelle about their teenage son and daughter.

"They're in school," she said. "I'm trying to keep things as normal for them as possible."

"Wait, what day is it?"

"Tuesday," she said.

He'd thought it was still Saturday.

Doctors told Kyle the blockage was likely caused by a piece of plaque breaking off. But they couldn't understand why he had plaque buildup in the first place. Kyle had normal blood pressure and cholesterol. He didn't have diabetes, never smoked and rarely drank. He had no significant history of heart disease in his family. Later, when a nutritionist came to talk to Kyle and Michelle about how to make healthy food choices, they were doing most of it already.

Two days later, on a Thursday in March 2023, Kyle was able to go home. He had lost 31 pounds, leaving him so weak that he had to use a walker for a few days.

Michelle sprang into action. With a full-time job and two active teens, she focused on taking care of everyone.

"I didn't have time to be scared or nervous," she said. "My thinking was, 'We're doing what the doctor said, and we're going to be fine.' I had to be the positive force."

Kyle, on the other hand, had all the time in the world "to rest and think."

"I realized how some things are out of your control," he said. "I had some dark days. It was a very humbling time."

He reached out to friends. He became connected with fellow heart patients. Hearing their stories helped.

That April, Kyle was excited to start cardiac rehabilitation at the hospital. He quickly built up his strength and stamina and felt great. He also returned to work part-time.

In late June, just a few weeks shy of completing rehab, Kyle was on the rowing machine when one of the technicians came running over. A monitor showed that Kyle's heart rate was accelerating.

"Come with me right now," the tech told Kyle, making Kyle sit in a wheelchair, then rushing him down the hallway to the emergency room.

At first, Kyle didn't understand. He felt fine. Then came the horribly familiar feeling of profuse sweating. He poured water over his head from the bottle he'd been sipping from.

Before they could get to help, Kyle slid out of the wheelchair and landed on the ground. He had stopped breathing.

Medical staff rushed to stabilize him. They shocked his heart with a defibrillator. Then he was rushed to the catheterization laboratory for a closer look at the problem.

Kyle had experienced a type of irregular heartbeat called ventricular tachycardia. V-tach causes a fast heart rate that starts in the heart's lower chambers, which prevents them from filling completely with blood between contractions. That compromises blood flow to the rest of the body.

In the cath lab, Kyle received two more stents in the same artery as the first two. The cardiologist said the V-tach was caused by a pinching in the complex placement of the first two stents.

Kyle was discharged four days later. For the next 90 days, he used a wearable cardioverter defibrillator to monitor his heart rhythm; if something went wrong, the device would deliver an electrical shock to the heart to restore a normal rhythm. He ended up receiving an implantable pacemaker and cardiac defibrillator to do what the wearable device had done.

These days, all is well.

He and Michelle are even more mindful of their diet, such as Kyle having completely cut out fried foods. He also walks more.

Kyle is as active as ever – golf is his top passion – though he is reluctant to push himself to the max physically.

The one activity he's vowed never to do again?

Shovel snow.

Stories From the Heart chronicles the inspiring journeys of heart disease and stroke survivors, caregivers and advocates.