As a very small number of you already know (and the rest are now finding out) I was hospitalized with a heart attack just before Christmas. Revived 3 times by electro-shock and sedated for 10+ days, I eventually emerged from the sedation 100% disabled around Jan. 3.

As part of this experience, I believe I have come to a full realization of the meaning of "primarily there for your safety" (PTFYS). These are the people who've spent the last 3 weeks keeping me fed, drugged and bathed and even wiping my butt for me when I had neither the strength nor balance to stand on my own. These people are not flight attendants.

We should demand a proper level of service every time we hear that "primarily there for your safety". At one point one of my RNs counted 23 tubes coming out of my body. They added a couple more they finally started reducing the count. Delta could make a lot of money installing tubes for food & drink & even extra oxygen, e.g. $25 first tube, $35 2nd tube, with surcharges for special lines for high-quality alcohol, etc. They also need to add talcum powder to the carts (use your own imagination ).

I was largely unaware of what was happening, but in my mind & in the best traditions of FT, I did take one final road trip, flying to Juarez, renting a car & driving to San Diego, where I believed I had the heart attack. (Actually it happened in a Minneapolis hospital where I had checked in for observation on Dec. 21 & never checked out).

One crucial point (esp. for high-mileage road warriors): One of my earliest clues that something was amiss was a dream 4 years ago during a red-eye back from SFO that I couldn't breath. It recurred perhaps 2-3 times in over the years. It wasn't a dream. Eventually I couldn't breath at night at sea level. There were other subtle clues not travel related, but in todays HMO environment of case management by pharmaceutical prescriptions, none were truly addressed. The morale of the story here is to pay attention to what might be happening in the 8,000 atmosphere of a plane. It could be real.

And a question: Does anyone know where I can find a local supply of the canned pink grapefruit juice Delta sometimes sells in the lounges? The canned OJ is distributed in-flight, and in the past I've been unable to find a local supply of the canned OJ, not even at high-end stores such as Byerly's. The cans of pink grapefruit juice are sold ("contribution requested") in the lounges are part of their breast cancer fund-raising. Right now I'm barred from consuming oranges & OJ, but a week staring at a stylized-photo of a bottle of grapefruit juice across from my bed in the ICU has left me with quite a craving.