UKRAINIAN VILLAGE — I arrived at St. Mary’s Hospital Thursday, asked a nurse where they keep their celebrity heart attack patients and followed directions to Tony Fitzpatrick’s room.
When Tony wasn’t there, I figured the Chicago artist had made a break for it. After all, you can’t expect a “widow maker” quadruple-bypass surgery to slow down a tough guy like Tony.
But as things turned out, he was around the corner doing exercises with his sweet but “slave-driving” physical therapist Dorota Pietrzak-Ruaz, who told me Tony’s making great progress.
And because of that, the doctors who saved Tony’s life say they might send him home this weekend to his quaint brownstone a few blocks away.
After his workout, I sat with Tony, a storyteller above all else, to hear the tale of his recent near-death experience.
"If I would have went to work that day, I'd be dead," he said.
He felt chest pains, dull and persistent in the middle of his chest. His wife, Michele, quickly called 911 and told him to chew on some baby aspirin.
When paramedics arrived, Tony insisted on walking to the ambulance in order not to wake his kids, Gabby and Max.
He told paramedics to take him to Northwestern Memorial, the prestigious Downtown hospital where his sister works. They balked.
“We go to the closest place,” the paramedics told him.
And that was St. Mary’s, a short drive from Tony’s place.
“And thank heavens they brought me here. I’ve never come here before. And you know what, this is a working class hospital for working class people. They were on top of everything that was wrong with me and didn’t fool around. The people couldn’t be kinder or more professional,” Tony said.
“If you get shot in the a-- some night on Taylor Street, I hope they bring you here,” he said.
Well, at least I know he didn’t lose his sense of humor on the operating table.
“Seriously,” Tony said, “if I would have went all the way to Northwestern I don’t know if I would have made it.”
Thankfully, the old guy pulled through.
He woke up from surgery — it took hours of work to unclog a set of 90 percent clogged arteries and repair a "torn heart valve flapping around like a dying fish" — to an overwhelming outpouring of support from family, friends and fans who called and posted uplifting messages on Facebook. And that has pushed him to work hard to rebuild his strength.
“All that goodwill means so much,” he said. “You never know how much people care until something bad happens to you. I’m immensely fortunate for all the people who care about me.”
And his other savior, so-to-speak, was President Obama, Tony says.
“You know what? The new face of Obamacare is my wrinkly white a--,” he said. “Whatever you think of Obama, the guy saved my life. Without Obamacare I wouldn’t have insurance. I walked around for three years without it.”
Now, it’s time for Tony 2.0.
The 56-year-old raconteur's days of chomping on a La Pasadita burrito are over.
In some ways, open-heart surgery has already given him a head start on a healthier life.
“I’ve lost 35 pounds in this place,” Tony said. “Smoked my last cigarette. Haven’t had one in 25 days. I’m done with that.”
And he really does looked thinner and healthier than before the “four-bagger” surgery that saved him.
Tony says he plans to eat a lot more kale in his quest to lose another 70 pounds this year, and another 25 pounds in 2016. And his friends promise to hold him to that.
“This is going to change a lot of things in my life,” Tony said, leaning back in a comfy chair.
He's already thinking about how this brush with "the big adios" will inspire his artistic ventures ... and how good it feels to know there's still more work for him to do.
“You know, going in I don't know if I believe in a higher power. But I believe in a higher light. And I honestly feel like I saw that a couple times," he said. "I think there’s a reason I didn’t die. … I’m not done yet.”
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