Second Chance at Life

March 20, 2023

“Paul, you are going to be here for the birth of your daughter. You are going to see your children grow up.”

Paul Fontaine’s cardiologist said that to him in St. Boniface Hospital on the morning after Fontaine had his pacemaker put in to steady his heartbeat. Those words answered any other questions he had.

“They still echo in his mind to this day,” said Fontaine. “I will get to see my children, Emmett, who is 4, and Elena, who is 1, grow up.”

Fontaine came close to death one week before his 33rd birthday. At the time, his fiancée, Shay, was eight months pregnant with their second child.

He has a rare inflammatory condition called cardiac sarcoidosis. His white blood cells are more aggressive than normal. Over time they can form clusters like scar tissue, called granulomas, in his lungs and heart.

Several months before, his doctor diagnosed him with first-degree heart block. The electrical current signaling his heart to pump blood was working, but at a slowed pace. His condition had caused this blockage of his heart’s electrical system. They had scheduled a follow-up test for August 2021.

Bad end to the workday

On June 7, 2021, Fontaine was at work, and it was the end of the day. He started to feel as if he had tunnel vision, or his eyes were struggling to focus.

Thinking he was overtired; he got in his car and started his drive home. Bad idea. His vision was so unfocused, he realized that he needed to get off the road. He pulled over and called Shay to pick him up.

Before driving home, he and Shay had to pick up their son, Emmett, at her parents’ house. Shay’s mom is a former nurse and retired St. Boniface Hospital phlebotomist (a technician who draws blood) with experience that was about to save his life.

The moment Fontaine walked in the door, her mom looked at him and said, “You need to sit down, Paul.” He was confused and slow to understand. She took his pulse; it was 34 beats per minute – dangerously low.

“You need to go to St. Boniface Hospital’s Emergency Department. It’s the best heart hospital in Manitoba,” she said. Shay rushed him to St. Boniface.

Pacemaker put in
Paul Fontaine had a pacemaker put in at St. Boniface in June 2021. He credits his nurses for keeping his spirits up while he was in the Hospital.

When Fontaine arrived, they took his pulse and did an EKG test. The next thing he knew, a nurse named Stu told him he had a complete heart block. He would need to have a temporary defibrillator put in immediately, in case his heart stopped beating. It was not your usual end of a workday!

Fontaine’s health-care team told him that had he gone home after work, he would not have woken up the next morning. He would have gone into cardiac arrest, or he would have had a stroke.

In the Emergency Department, they moved him to an isolation room, set up all the IVs and machines, and hooked him up. Then they put in the temporary defibrillator, inserted through an incision in his neck. It would stay there for 24 hours.

His nurse, Stu, made the process more comfortable for him. “I tend to think I’m a positive person, so I tried to keep joking around and trying to laugh. Stu joined in, making jokes to help me feel better and put me at ease,” said Fontaine.

He was in St. Boniface for three more days. They put in his pacemaker on June 9, 2021, and released him the next day.

“I have no complaints.”
“Life is awesome,” says Paul Fontaine with fiancée Shay, son Emmett, and daughter Elena.

“Coming out of the Hospital, I didn’t want to be like, “Why me?” Feeling sorry for myself would have been a waste of my energy,” he said. “Instead, I keep a positive attitude about being given a second chance by Foundation donors who supported my care at St. Boniface Hospital.”

Fontaine is 34 years old now, and currently on medication to reduce inflammation in his body and manage the heart problems caused by his condition. His daughter, Elena, was born that same summer on August 16, 2021.

“Life is awesome. I have no complaints,” he said. “I get to spend as much time as I can with my family. That is what I was put on this earth to do. I’ve always considered myself a family man, and I get to live that through now.”


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