Donald, 73, was driving the couple home to Huntley, Illinois, after visiting his brother, when Dorthea noticed the car beginning to slow down. She turned to her husband, asking him why he was slowing down, and saw that his eyes were closed. She touched his hand, and immediately knew something was wrong when she felt how cold it was. By this time, the car had come to a complete stop in the middle of the road.

Panicked, Dorthea jumped out of the car and began to wave down cars. Miraculously, a state police cruiser was traveling almost directly behind them and pulled to the side of the road. An EMT traveling back from vacation saw the state trooper lifting Donald out of the car and also stopped, as did a physician. Dorthea later learned that a second EMT joined the group as well.

The trooper had an automated cardiac defibrillator (AED) in his cruiser, a device that jolts the heart back to its normal rhythm, and with the help of one of the EMTs, began to administer the shocks. Within moments, an ambulance arrived.

"It seemed like they were working on him forever," recalls Dorthea. "I could hear him gasping in the back of the ambulance. I was really nervous and upset. I couldn't even call my daughter. The EMT who helped revive Donald called her for me."

What had happened to Donald is his heart had gone into ventricular fibrillation, meaning its ventricles were quivering rather than contracting, and therefore inadequately pumping blood. This irregular heart rhythm, or arrhythmia, is life threatening.

Donald, however, has absolutely no memory of what happened. In fact, his last memory is of leaving the cemetery where he and his wife had stopped briefly to visit his parents' graves -- about an hour before his cardiac arrest. When he regained consciousness four days after the incident, Seemann said he really didn't feel very bad, just tired. During those lost four days, he had been sedated, hooked up to a ventilator and fed intravenously.

Over the following days, hospital staff performed a series of tests, including electrophysiology tests that evaluated the electrical circuitry of Donald's heart. His cardiologist determined that his heart rhythms could go awry again, and that he should have an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). A little more than a week after his cardiac arrest, the pager-sized device was implanted just below his left collar bone. Connected to his heart with wires, the ICD monitors Donald's heart rhythms and when an irregular heart beat is detected, it delivers an electrical jolt that normalizes the rhythm.

A retired electrical engineer, Donald has more than a passing interest in the device that could save his life. "I'm intrigued with what this device can do. In my mind, I'm laying out its circuitry and how it can trigger the pulses of the heart," says Donald. "It stores in its memory all of its activity and I'm fascinated by how the doctors can periodically 'read' that memory."

Donald is still wrestling with the question of what triggered his cardiac arrest, and whether he should have seen it coming. Although he was in very good physical shape, thanks in part to his daily exercise regimen, there were a few troubling details in his medical history. In 1984, he had a portion of his colon removed. Immediately after the operation, he suffered a heart attack and he was told that a blood clot had lodged in his heart, causing the attack. However, he was unaware that there had been any lasting effect until a couple of years ago, when an echocardiogram and a thalium stress test revealed damage to a portion of heart muscle as well as a leaky valve. Donald said it's possible that these earlier problems presaged what was to come.

Although the root cause of his cardiac arrest is still somewhat uncertain, what Donald does know is that his good physical shape had a big effect on how events played out. "The cardiologist said if I hadn't been exercising the way I do, I wouldn't have made it," says Donald.

Donald has resumed exercising, slowly, limiting himself so far to short walks with Dorthea. But he plans to return soon to the fitness center where he used to work out regularly. His cardiologist tells him that eventually he should be able to do most everything he did before, with the exception of some upper body exercises that could dislodge the leads that connect the ICD to his heart.

So far, he says, the ICD has not fired and it's had minimum impact on his life, although he's conscious of the things that could interfere with its operation -- cellular phones, heavy machinery, metal detectors, for example.*

"I feel it, it's there, but not as much as I did in the beginning," says Donald. "I imagine a couple of months down the road, I won't even be conscious of it."

This patient story may not be typical. Individual symptoms, situations and circumstances vary and response to therapy is not always the same. Please consult your physician or health care provider regarding your condition, treatment or any specific questions regarding your care.