When the pain ripped across his chest and his arms got so heavy they felt like lead, Tommie Acker of Shelburne,
N.S. was deep in his woodlot, training his young oxen, Bright and Lion how to pull logs.
It was late October and
he was having a heart attack.

"I couldn't imagine how
I was getting out of there. There was no way I could walk, and the oxen had never gone anywhere without me leading them from the front. I thought I may as well die trying to get out, so I sat on the back of my wagon, pointed it towards home and hung on for dear life. I knew once the oxen started going there was no stopping them," he said.

The oxen were able to follow the logging road and brought Tommie to the gate of his house. After an extremely rough ride that he admits left his bottom black and blue, he was able to pull himself off the wagon and make his way up to his front door, where his wife, Helena, was vacuuming.

"I knew what was happening as soon as I saw him, I left the vacuum cleaner on and ran out to the car with him," said Helena.

The Acker's arrived at the local hospital, Roseway, in Shelburne where doctors called for the EMS helicopter to airlift him to the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax.

Tommie spent two weeks at the QEII, undergoing tests before he was sent home for a rest before bypass surgery, which he had in December.

"The nurses and doctors were great, but they were glad to have me gone I'm sure, I drove them nuts because I wanted to get home."

After a couple months of recovery after surgery, Tommie was feeling better than ever and by May he was back at work lobster fishing, putting in 12 hour days.

'I'm like a newborn. Too many people think that once they have a heart attack that's the end and they don't do nothing with their lives. I'm going full-throttle. I asked the doctor what can I do now that I've had the heart attack , and he said 'you do whatever you want to, that's why we operated on you'."

Tommie is grateful for the care he received at the QEII and the life-saving journey provided by his oxen Bright and Lion, who have become like family.

"They're a little spoiled those oxen, but that's what they deserve. I'm nothing but good to them," he said with a smile. They won't be going to any butcher shop."