Hey guys,

I’m sorry to share that we lost a fellow QB this past week. Dave Morgan, Harvard class of ‘94, died suddenly of a heart attack on July 25th, leaving behind a wife and teenage daughter.

Dave was a big presence, both physically and emotionally, and he had a wide circle of friends because of the kind-hearted, humble, funny way he had about him.

He was an elite, three-sport athlete, and played both football and baseball at Harvard, the year ahead of me, and he was always very welcoming as a fellow QB. Please take the time to read Dave’s obituary here:

Dave’s passing is also “personal” in that I had a heart attack in the summer of 2020, albeit milder in that it affected two small cardiac arteries (which now have stents in them) and no lasting damage was done, so I was very lucky.

I was also an idiot … despite my own medical background, I ignored years of high cholesterol readings, the advice to take a statin drug, and the advice to get a coronary calcium scan. I even tried to ignore the pain I was experiencing, or justify it as “GI stuff,” then treated that pain with some old opioid pills that were in the house from one of the kids’ knee surgeries (which we didn’t let them take), and justified the high blood pressure readings I was taking on myself during the painful episodes as “just some stress.”

Finally after about a week of several painful episodes, I took an Uber (with a cigarette smoking driver) to the hospital in the middle of the night (my family was up in New Hampshire) during the middle of the COVID pandemic, and tried to assure the triage nurse that my pain, including that which was radiating down my arm, was “just GI stuff.”

Thankfully it all ultimately worked out, but you can see that heart attacks are not rare flukes. They happen all the time, and in many cases there are signs and symptoms in advance, and things that can be done. To be clear, I don’t know the details of Dave’s situation, or whether he knew anything, felt anything, or suspected anything, but I know about my own situation and about the countless others that have had heart attacks … so don’t ignore the signs and symptoms, be proactive, follow the advice, and go get checked … whatever it is.

I’m also going to use Dave’s passing as source of focus … specifically, focusing QB Connections … on connecting QBs with information, resources, and each other … for the purpose of driving health, both physical and mental, for lifelong QBs and their families. This is a no-brainer as a focus, and will help put to rest the question of the “why?” of QB Connections.

So, we are back at it, with renewed focus on health, starting today.

Have a great day and a great weekend, and go get checked, in honor of Dave Morgan.

Thanks,

Vin