On Aug. 3, 2023, Al Labiche of Shannon was mowing his lawn, despite a heat index of 106 degrees.

“While I was mowing, I had bad acid reflux and chest pain. I had changed a tire the day before, and I thought maybe I had just pulled a muscle,” Al says. “Then I switched to trimming the weeds, and the trimmer got so heavy I could barely hold it up. I knew something was bad wrong.”

Al called his wife and told her he was going inside to lie down for a bit—but fortunately, both thought better of it, and she called 9-1-1 instead.

He was rushed to the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo. “During the procedure my heart stopped beating and they had to shock me twice to get it started again,” says the 65-year-old from Shannon. “The next thing I knew, I woke up in the recovery room after quadruple bypass surgery.”

Al knew this day might be coming—after all, his father had suffered a major heart attack at age 52, his mother struggles with atrial fibrillation and he has battled persistently high cholesterol. “I knew the path I was headed down. I have been fighting bad genes all my life,” he says. But on that day, he was at the right place at the right time.

“Everyone told me that if I had gone to lay down instead of calling an ambulance or if I had waited just a few minutes longer, I would not be alive,” he says.

Al has always been active, retiring in 2021 after more than two decades as an auto mechanic, and was itching to get back in motion.

“Coming back from heart surgery is tough,” Al says. “I started out by walking at home, but I’d have to stop and rest in the driveway. When I started the Cardiac Rehabilitation program at the hospital, I was so weak that I’d drive around and around to find a front row parking space just so I could make it up there.”

After a heart event or procedure, Cardiac Rehabilitation helps improve physical status and emotional well-being through supervised exercise and instruction for healthy lifestyle changes. Participants learn about coronary artery disease, contributing risk factors and more.

After 25 sessions, Al graduated from the program in much better shape.

But three months to the day of his first heart attack, he suffered a second one. This time, he had two stents placed in coronary arteries.

“I wanted to get as healthy as I could, and Cardiac Rehabilitation was essential to my recovery,” he says. “I saw how much difference it made after my first heart attack, and I couldn’t wait to get back.”

Because nurses, respiratory therapists and fitness specialists lead the program and monitor vital signs throughout each session, Al says he felt safe while exercising. “If I had a question, they would go out of their way to get me an answer,” he says.

After completing 35 additional sessions of Cardiac Rehabilitation, Al takes what he learned to heart.

“To be honest, after my first heart attack, I don’t think I would have done the exercise on my own,” he says. “But now I’m following the program and staying true to my exercise,” he says. “I believe it’s by the grace of God that I’m still here.”