Nancy Pardo
This story is a part of the My Unsung Hero sequence, from the Hidden Mind group, about folks whose kindness left a long-lasting impression on another person.
In 2015, Nancy Pardo and her husband, Tom, spent a couple of days climbing in a nationwide park in Maine. One morning, as they had been strolling on a footpath, Tom fainted. Later that day, he fainted once more.
They went straight to the native hospital, the place docs ran a number of checks however couldn’t determine why Tom had handed out. So Tom and Nancy had been despatched on their means.
They left the hospital and began strolling, in search of a spot to have lunch. After they stopped exterior a restaurant to take a look at a menu, Tom fainted once more. And this time, it was a lot worse.
“He went down more durable and stayed out longer,” Nancy recalled.
Strangers appeared and known as 911, and Nancy and Tom went again to the identical hospital, the place they stayed for a number of days. From there they had been transferred to the most important hospital within the space, Northern Mild Jap Maine Medical Heart in order that Tom may get a extra sophisticated process – a coronary heart catheterization. It might permit his docs to find out if Tom had any blockages, which could clarify the fainting spells.
However simply as earlier than, the medical group couldn’t discover any apparent issues. For Tom and Nancy, the uncertainty was terrifying.
“I used to be very afraid,” Nancy mentioned. “And the subsequent morning, when the physician got here to launch us, I requested him, ‘What can we do now?'”
She assumed he would counsel one other check or one other specialist. However he did not say something like that.
“Dr. Isidore Okere, who I’ll keep in mind my complete life, mentioned to us, ‘Go dwell your life,'” Nancy recalled. “It wasn’t in a flippant means. It was his recommendation to us.”
And that’s what they’ve performed. Regardless of two bouts of most cancers since 2008, Tom is doing properly and walks greater than 5 miles a day. And Dr. Isidore Okere continues to work on the Northern Mild Jap Maine Medical Heart, in Bangor, Maine, the place he’s a heart specialist.
“Now we’re…taking Dr. Okere’s recommendation as typically as we are able to, attempting to not be afraid,” Nancy mentioned. “And to go dwell our lives.”
My Unsung Hero can be a podcast — new episodes are launched each Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Mind group, file a voice memo in your cellphone and ship it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.