HOUSTON – A local man was raising awareness about the importance of heart health after surviving quintuple bypass surgery.
Sam Nielsen had major open-heart surgery four years ago and now he’s beating the odds.
June was Men’s Health Month which is a time to remind men to get checkups, eat healthy and stay active.
“I thought I was having an allergic reaction, turned bright red,” said Sam Nielsen. “We went to the doctor, found out that I had a heart attack.”
In 2021, at only 47 years old, everything changed for Nielsen.
“Then after they did some tests, they said you’re going to have to have quintuple bypass,” said Nielsen. “It’s open-heart surgery, but that’s five arteries. So, they’re basically rebuilding your heart.”
Nielsen survived the 8-hour quintuple bypass surgery.
“When I overheard the doctor try to calm my wife down and say, ‘Hey, your husband’s different. He’ll probably run a marathon in a year.’ That just stuck in my head,” he said.
He made it a commitment to himself.
“I just focused on the day. That’s all I worried about was today I can walk 10 minutes and run one minute,” said Nielsen.
Ten months later, Nielsen ran his first marathon and hasn’t slowed down since.
“So far, I’ve completed five marathons, 150K, 100K, which was the first big ultra. It’s 62 miles at Rocky Raccoon here in Texas and then last December, I became the first that we know of in the world to complete a 100-mile at Brazos.”
He gets his inspiration from his good friend Sterling Lyman who lives with ALS and created the effort Stand with Sterling.
“I said, ‘Hey, man, you keep fighting and I’ll keep running and we’ll just keep doing that.’ And that’s what we’re doing,” said Nielsen. “You got to live on no matter how tough life is. You live on.”
Dr. Michael Daniel at Vital Heart & Vein in Humble is Nielsen’s doctor.
“You look at Sam, he looks outwardly like a very fit guy, very thin, otherwise healthy, exercised regularly,” said Daniel. “He had been accumulating that cholesterol buildup probably for 10, 20 years that usually accumulates later in life.”
Dr. Daniel said it’s never too early for people to get their cholesterol and heart checked. He has seen patients as young as 30 years old.
“We call it a coronary CT scan, where instead of having to do a procedure, we can look at your heart arteries from a CT scan and then that helps guide treatment. It helps change your goal,” said Daniel.
Sam’s goal now is to continue running and live on.
“It was just very quick, unexpected, obviously scary. But a blessing in disguise because it changed my lifestyle and I’m living much healthier.
Sam said exercise is not as complicated as people think. He encourages others to start with a daily 5-minute walk. He said the little things make a big difference.
Sam’s next race is a 100K in December.
He plans to continue running one to two ultramarathons a year and show support for his friend battling ALS.
