Cliff Norris Jr. had felt this pain in his right arm before, so he wasn’t particularly alarmed as he walked from the parking lot across from Riverside Theatre toward the east end of the Barber Bridge.
Then, suddenly, came another pain – one the longtime island resident and realtor had never experienced – in his jaw.
“I remember saying to myself, ‘Lord, what’s that?’” Norris said, recalling what would become a frightening and life-altering Saturday afternoon in early October. “It definitely got my attention.”
Still, he kept walking, turning left onto the sidewalk on the south side of Beachland Boulevard.
Before he could reach the bridge, however, his vision began to blur and he felt lightheaded, so much so that he stopped and grabbed the sidewalk railing.
“Even then, I thought it would pass,” said Norris, who turned 57 earlier this month. “That was the last thing I remember before blacking out.”
Those symptoms, he would later learn, were the onset of a massive heart attack, caused by a total blockage of the left anterior descending artery – a heart attack commonly known as the “widow maker,” because it’s so often fatal.
Somehow, though, Norris survived.
“I guess the Lord still has a plan for me,” he said, openly embracing his Christian faith, “because it’s a miracle that I’m here.”
At the very least, it was a fortuitous twist of fate that someone was driving by, noticed the fallen pedestrian on the sidewalk, and immediately stopped to help.
It was mere coincidence, however, that the woman who came to his aid was someone he knew – Justine Buck, whose husband, Jim, had retired earlier this year after 27 years as tennis director at the Orchid Island Golf & Beach Club.
For those who don’t know: Norris, who grew up at John’s Island, was a top junior who starred at Vero Beach High School before going on to play at Vanderbilt University, and he’s well-known in the local tennis community.
“She just happened to be coming over the bridge, on her way to visit her mother at John’s Island, when she saw someone on the ground,” Norris said. “She didn’t know it was me. We hadn’t seen each other in a couple of years.”
In fact, Buck didn’t realize she was tending to a friend until a Vero Beach police officer arrived at the scene and asked a disoriented Norris for his name.
“That’s when I heard her say, ‘Cliff? It’s Justine,’” Norris said.
He doesn’t know how long he was unconscious – he believes it was for only a couple of minutes – but he remembers opening his eyes and seeing blood and his broken sunglasses on the sidewalk.
“I don’t remember hitting the ground, but I must’ve face-planted,” Norris said. “When I first opened my eyes, I didn’t know where I was or what had happened.”
By the time a Fire Rescue ambulance arrived, though, he had regained his senses.
“I was awake and lucid,” he said. “If you had told me to walk it off, I probably would’ve tried, but I knew I was in trouble. I knew it was my heart. I knew there was something really, really wrong.”
How wrong? Norris would find out after being transported to Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital, where he underwent two days of tests, including a heart catheterization procedure that helped diagnose the extent of the blockage.
The following Monday, doctors told him how dangerously close he came to dying on that sidewalk.
“I’ll never forget one doctor coming in and telling me: ‘Don’t bother buying a Florida Lottery ticket. You just cashed yours in,’” Norris said.
A stent wasn’t an option, so, on the morning of Oct. 12 – four days after his heart attack – cardiac surgeon Mariano Brizzio performed coronary bypass surgery, a four-hour procedure that corrected the problem.
“Everything went smoothly,” Norris said. “They had me up and walking the hospital hallways the next day.”
He was released from the hospital a week later and, grateful to be back in his Pebble Bay home, continues to recover. He returned to work last month.
The 9-inch scar on his chest is still sore – he’ll show it to friends who want to see it – but he’s now walking more than two miles per day and has begun light workouts at a local gym. A healthy glow has returned to his face. He hopes to start playing tennis again in February.
Norris also has committed to a more-healthy diet. He’s finally on the cholesterol medication he should’ve been taking for years. And at 215 pounds, he plans to resume his efforts to lose weight, but with more wisdom this time.
It was his frenzied push to shed weight – after too many years of high cholesterol and eating the wrong foods, as well as being too sedentary for too long – that contributed to his heart attack.
This past spring, after more than a year away, Norris returned to the tennis court. When he wasn’t playing matches, he was rallying with friends, hitting against a ball machine or practicing serves.
He continued that regimen throughout the summer, and it produced results: He dropped 20 pounds and weighed just over 220 on Oct. 8, when he stepped onto the court to play a singles match in a Boulevard Tennis Club-sponsored tournament.
“We played at noon in the heat of the day, and it was about 90 degrees,” Norris said. “I knew I had to get out of there in two sets, because I didn’t have a third set in me.”
Norris played well and went on to win in straight sets, but the match lasted more than 90 minutes.
“I’m usually good about not pushing myself too hard, but that tennis match forced me to go hard for almost two hours, and that put me over the edge,” he said. “I was tired, sopping wet and huffing and puffing on changeovers. Believe me, I was relieved when it was over.
“But I felt fine when I left the club.”
With his wife, son and daughter all out of town, Norris returned home with only two other items on his to-do list: Show a house to a potential buyer at 4 p.m., and dinner with his father at 6:30 p.m.
Then the buyer canceled.
“I weighed myself when I got home, and I was 221, which made me think: If I lose two more pounds, I’ll be under 220 for the first time in years,” Norris said. “I had some free time before dinner, so I decided to walk the bridges.
“It’s about six miles all the way around – from Riverside Park over both the Barber and 17th Street bridges and back to the park – but I go at an easy pace.”
So off he went.
To be sure, there were warning signs, including at least one recent episode of lightheadedness, blurred vision and an irregular heartbeat. There was also the aforementioned arm pain he began noticing two years ago.
“I definitely ignored some red flags, and that’s on me,” Norris said. “I didn’t know I was about to have a heart attack, but I should have known something was wrong, and I should’ve done something about it.
“This was going to happen eventually, some day in some way,” he continued. “I was stubborn, and I’m 100-percent responsible for my actions. I can only hope me telling my story can help another stubborn guy out there.”
In the meantime, Norris is looking forward to fully embracing the spirit of a Christmas made extra special by what he’s convinced was another miracle.
“This Christmas will feel different,” he said. “I’m just so thankful for all the miracles in my life – my marriage, my family, my business, and especially my health.”
