'Near death': Man's touching post from hospital bed goes viral
A man's new rules for living have gone viral after he revealed the first thoughts he had as he was suffering a heart attack.
Jonathan Frostick, an investment bank program manager, wrote in a moving post on LinkedIn what went through his head as he struggled to breathe after sitting down to organise his work week on Sunday.
"So I had a heart attack," he said.
"This is not how I planned my Sunday. It was pretty standard up to 4pm. Morning coffee, a trip to the local country park, a shopping trip and late lunch.
"I sat down at my desk at 4pm to prep for this week's work. And then I couldn't really breathe. My chest felt constrained, I had what I can only describe as surges in my left arm, my neck, my ears were popping."
Mr Frostick added he did not see a flash of light and his life did not race through his mind. Instead he had four other thoughts that later worried him.
His first thought was: "F***, I needed to meet with my manager tomorrow, this isn't convenient."
Secondly, he began thinking about how to secure funding for a work project before, "S***, I haven't updated my will".
His last thought was: "I hope my wife doesn't find me dead."
Man's new rules after 'near-death' experience
Mr Frostick, from London in the UK, wrote in the LinkedIn post he made it to his bed and alerted his wife, who called the ambulance.
Posting a photo of himself in hospital, Mr Frostick revealed the near-death experience taught him a lesson and shared his new rules for living life.
He vowed to no longer spend all day on Zoom and was restructuring his approach to work.
He added life was "literally too short" to "put up with any s*** at work ever again".
Mr Frostwick said he would lose 15 kilograms after leaving hospital and now wanted every day at work to count for something, otherwise he would quit.
Lastly, he committed to spending more time with his family.
"And that, so far, is what near death has taught me," he said at the end of the post.
Health scare resonates with thousands
The program manager said he was still recovering and added acknowledging mortality was "a big one".
He said he shouldn't have worked on weekends but was forced to. While he is "deeply passionate" about his job, he admitted he was a living example of getting the mix wrong.
"Currently I intend to get back to work. In short/medium term that's my plan with a renewed sense of purpose and revised approach," he said.
Mr Frostwick's post resonated with tens of thousands of people who shared similar experiences.
"This is really heartwarming. I too went through a health scare, and decided to do something similar. Got fitter, worked less, cut out all the people that were 'draining' me," she said.
"What raced through my mind was, 'Can someone cancel my hairdresser appointment?'"
"We can all relate to the typical Sunday afternoon stress ahead of the start of the work week and clearly it's not sustainable week in week out without an impact on one's health," another said.
"I left a job recently because the work/life balance was basically non-existent. People worked constantly and management had no apparent issues with that," a third added.
"Now I am with an organisation that values employee downtime and understands that people need to refresh, away from work, which only makes us better at our jobs ultimately."
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