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Cline back at council after heart attack, calls recovery a miracle

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By Jill Kelley, Staff Writer 2:49 PM Friday, May 28, 2010

CENTERVILLE — “Here!”

That was the hearty reply by Deputy Mayor Doug Cline when his name was read in the roll call at the May 17 Centerville City Council meeting.

Cline said he was happy to be back in his council seat a little more than two months after suffering a major heart attack.

“I had a heart attack back in March,” Cline told the crowd on a chilly Monday night, “and the last council meeting, it was cold and rainy — so things haven’t changed that much!”

Cline said he wanted to thank everybody — and nearly did. He thanked God, City Council and city staff, the community, his cardiologist (Dr. Thomas Huff), nurses, staff, EMTs, ambulance drivers, pastors.

“I thanked everyone but my wife (Elizabeth),” he said later in disbelief. “I know it was harder for her (than me). She had to sit there for a day and wonder if she was going to be a widow.”

Cline said his heart attack was the result of a clot in his enlarged coronary artery, rather than due to heart disease.

“Mine was a ticking time bomb,” he said, adding that he was kept alive with compressions for about an hour. “Doctors were able to put a stint in, and the long-term prognosis is good. There was little damage to my heart.”

Cline, a father of five who works as an investment adviser for Morgan Stanley, has been a member of Centerville City Council for 11 years. He has served as deputy mayor since 2004.

He said he believes his recovery was a miracle.

“Medically, with what I went through and how long my heart had stopped, there are not a lot of good medical reasons why I am here,” he said, “and why I have no cognitive loss.”

He believes the experience may be the miracle he had started praying years before.

“I had been very angry with God when my mom died of Alzheimer’s (disease) in 2008,” Cline said. “And I was always told that miracles don’t happen for Alzheimer’s patients.”

But he said, after his heart attack, everything just started to come together.

“I thought, ‘I get it. This is my miracle,’ ” he said. “We are on God’s timetable and plan. He had a miracle, but he was ready to take my mom and not me.”

Cline said his faith has never been stronger.

“Pastor (John) Bradosky (the city chaplain), visited me the next day (after the heart attack) and was praying with me,” Cline said. “I could hear his voice, but his face didn’t make sense to me. It had this glow. I felt God was there, and he was telling me I was going to be OK.”

Cline said recalling that event still makes his skin tingle.

“To be there in the presence of it is a humbling, humbling experience,” he said. “I feel like I have a new lease on life.”

And, to help make sure this lease is nice and long, Cline said he is following doctor’s orders.

“You think, when you go on a diet, you have to have a smaller plate — and life is like that, too,” he said. “You have to prioritize and make changes. Faith, family and friends are the things that get the highest priority.

“I didn’t want to make any quick decisions on that, but I’ve been very busy for a lot of years. This is a good wake-up call.”

For now, Cline is back working part-time for Morgan Stanley, and he is doing cardiac rehab, swimming and following a low-sodium diet.

“Low-fat is easy,” said Cline, who has lost about 25 pounds since his heart attack. “Low-sodium is very difficult. Any of your processed foods, or if you go out to eat — it’s all loaded up with sodium.”

He said he expects to resume all his responsibilities with the city.

“If there are areas where I need to scale something back, I will,” he said.

Cline said he wasn’t surprised how the council members pulled together during his absence.

“They’re a great group of people, and we help each other out,” he said. “I can trust any of those people. It’s like at my office. I have a business partner (David Cox) who has been absolutely wonderful. He just said, ‘You get well.’ ”

Cline said he still questions why he received this miracle, but said he is doing everything he can to live up to it.

“I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7325 or jikelley@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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