When Dave Schlagetter's divorce was finalized in April 2013, he thought he knew a lot about stress and its effects on the human body. When the mother of his three grown children was killed in a car crash a month later, he realized he didn't know as much as he had previously thought."I have a really good job; a great job. I have a great crew and the best membership anywhere. I have the least stressful job of anyone I know," said Schlagetter, who for 22 years has been superintendent at the Indian Hill Club in Winnetka, Illinois. "But my divorce was stressful, and the death of my ex-wife was really stressful."
Despite his active lifestyle that includes playing tennis and golf (and he usually walks when he plays) and riding his bicycle several days a week, Schlagetter suffered a heart attack five months after the death of his ex-wife. He never saw it coming until, thanks to his defibrillator and first-aid training, he one day recognized all the classic signs of impending cardiac arrest - in himself.
"I had taken the day off work and was taking a bike ride on a Sunday morning. I had all the classic symptoms of a heart attack: shortness of breath, tightness in the chest, nausea and I was sweating profusely," said Schlagetter. "I called 911, opened the front door so they could get in, and I laid down at the door, and I talked to the dispatcher until paramedics arrived. When they took me to the hospital, doctors found a 100-percent-blocked artery, put a stent in it, and it was opened in 90 minutes of me making the call.
"I thought I was in good condition. There was no indication that this was coming. I'm not overweight, I'm not a smoker, but my doctor says I drink too much. However, I've never met a doctor who said you don't drink enough."
The experience has since led to a series of life changes that Schlagetter is happy to share with anyone who will listen.
"A lot of guys our age, in their 50s, are having heart attacks, because of stress and not making healthy choices," he said.
"I tell my kids I love them a lot more often than I did before."
"I thought I was in good condition. There was no indication that this was coming. I'm not overweight, I'm not a smoker, but my doctor says I drink too much. However, I've never met a doctor who said you don't drink enough."
Anthony Williams, CGCS at Stone Mountain Golf Club in Georgia had a similar series of life-altering experiences last year when he suffered unimaginable tragedy within a span of nine weeks.
Last Aug. 7, Terry McWaters, Williams' stepbrother, went missing. Williams' family hired a private detective to take up the search, with no luck. A week later, an Atlanta road maintenance crew spotted a car off the highway in the trees not far from the golf course at Stone Mountain. Inside was McWaters, who, according to the coroner, had died of a heart attack while behind the wheel.
More than six weeks later, on Sept. 22, Williams was set to speak at the Sustainability in Golf conference in Hilton Head, South Carolina, when wife Phyllis suffered a heart attack in the couple's hotel room and was rushed to a local hospital. When Williams considered foregoing the conference, his wife, long since hardened by the sacrifices a superintendent's wife, had one message for him: "Get your (expletive deleted) together, and do what we came here for you to do. I'm good. The doctors are great. Don't be a sissy."
With no reading between the lines needed, Williams spoke at the conference then returned to the hospital.
"That gave us some normalcy," Williams said.
That return to normal life, however, was short-lived.
Three weeks later, with his wife in and out of doctors' offices during her recovery, Williams himself fell ill at the golf course. His equipment manager and longtime friend Jim Stuart summoned an ambulance. The two have worked together for 29 years.
"We've had that deal for all of those 29 years: If it gets bad, make the call and stay with me," Williams said. "He's leading, 1-0."
After being transported to a local hospital in suburban Atlanta, Williams was flown by helicopter later that day to a downtown hospital where he underwent emergency open-heart surgery to repair an enlarged valve."It came down to a matter of minutes or hours, not days," Williams said.
"My heart was broken. My wife needed me, and there I was with a 10-inch gash in my chest and on a breathing machine. Phyllis is the loving wife who always puts me back together when I'm broken. But now, I saw her life flash before my eyes."
The ordeal meant several weeks away from work, and leaving assistant Matt Park in charge at a 36-hole facility that theoretically is open 12 months a year.
In a case of early second childhood, the couple soon found themselves relying on then-28-year-old son Luke, who chauffeured to doctors' offices and confiscated cell phones to make sure they stayed calm and on the road to recovery. He even accompanied his father to last month's Golf Industry Show more or less as a babysitter.
Already a sought-after motivational speaker and author on career and personal development, Williams, like Schlagetter, wants to share his message and experiences with anyone who will listen. And each has said their experiences have helped them stop and smell the roses a little more than before.
"I don't know how many days, months, years we have left together as a family. I know this, though, we almost didn't have any," Williams said. "It's easy to become complacent and drift day to day, week to week and status-quo your way through life. But you don't get that time back.
"After something like this happens, first you're thankful to be alive, but then you remember you still have obligations, and you have to get your mind back into the game quickly. We both agreed not to make any drastic, life-altering decisions until we were physically back to make sure we were not overreacting. Usually, you have a spouse to lean on when you go through something like this, but when we both went down 18 days apart, it changes all that."
Both Williams and Schlagetter found a return to work, albeit a gradual one, to be an effective part of their respective therapy programs.
"Considering my wife and I almost died, did I really want to get back into the grind? That was the question I had to ask myself. And my answer was yes," Williams said. "Everyone has to search through that for themselves."
Returning to work also was good therapy for Schlagetter.
"This might seem counterintuitive, but I appreciate my job more now than ever," Schlagetter said. "The way the club supported me through 2013 for everything I went through was incredible.
"Job support was always there, but I never needed it like I did in 2013. I can't say enough good things about my employer and the people there."
Schlagetter always believed that because he was active he could eat anything he wanted. He has since learned that is not the case. He also has learned through his rehab process that all exercise is not created equally.
"Through cardio rehab, I learned the right way to exercise for heart health," he said. "I was exercising all wrong. I was exercising to an anaerobic state. I learned the best exercise for the heart is aerobic, rather than anaerobic."
Therapy also has included wholesale changes to his diet, switching from his intake of pub food to more heart-healthy choices like fruits, vegetables and fresh fish.
"In general, I'm making choices that have helped me live a better life every day," Schlagetter said.
"It's not a hard transition to make, but it requires a little more planning. Sometimes it means putting a protein bar in the car, so I don't have to stop and get a burger, or looking through an entire menu and making better choices. They're there. Restaurants have found there s big money in selling salads for 12 bucks a pop."