OPINION|
Gordon Elliott has chaired the Missouri State Board of Governors, served on the Springfield City Council, the Springfield-Greene County Park Board, chaired the City Utilities Board and years ago was president of Springfield Jaycees.
Elliott in 2013 was named Springfieldian of the Year by the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce and Volunteer of the Year by the Springfield Southeast Rotary.
He won't appear on any 40 Under Forty lists, but I'm about ready to renew my efforts to launch the 70 Over Seventy awards, just so I could nominate Elliott.
Now, Elliott has written a book, just published: “Dead on Arrival in China.”
It's a short book, 117 pages, and an easy read. He wrote it with the help of Kay and Paul Logsdon.
You can buy it for $15.99 at Best Western Route 66 Rail Haven (where Elvis once stayed) at 202 S. Glenstone Ave. and it can be purchased on Kindle.
Elliott owns the historic Rail Haven and several other hotels, as well as about 700 apartments in Springfield.
The book's forward is written by Elliott's friend, former U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt. Elliott, long active in Republican politics, was campaign manager for Blunt's successful bid for Greene County Clerk back in 1974.
In 2004, when Elliott had a heart attack while vacationing with his wife, Glenda, in China, Blunt was a congressman. Blunt helped expedite what was needed for Elliott's son and for others to rush to China.
I've chosen to write this in a Q & A format because many — but not all — of my questions are answered in the book. I also interviewed Elliott for 40 minutes on Wednesday, Jan. 31.
Q: The focus is how you had a heart attack in Beijing, China in September 2004, were rushed to a hospital, initially described as “dead on arrival” and spent three weeks there. Why are you writing about this for the first time now, 20 years later?
A: “My oldest grandkids are 30 years old. I have great-grandkids. I'm getting up in years. I wanted to make sure the recollections were there for them.
“It's been something I've been pretty emotional about for a lot of years. I'm more emotional about Glenda, because she saved my life.”
Elliott, 80, and Glenda have been married 60 years. They have two children, nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Q: You had a team of doctors and only one spoke some English. The standard of care was not what you would have experienced here. Did you think you were going to die?
A: “Yes, I was worried.
“Glenda overheard a phone call from the hospital to the American Embassy. They said that they had a United States national, aged 61, who was DOA — dead on arrival.
“There was 24 hours of shocking me. I don't know whether I died or my heart got out of shape. But I went in and out of being shocked for 24 hours.
“My first 10 days were horrible. I'm lying there on my back. I can't raise my head off the pillow. I was in the room with somebody else. I didn't know if it was a man or a woman. They were beating on this person. I found out later it was to keep their breathing OK.
“All there was in front of me was a clock. A great big clock with time on it.”
Elliott was on a ventilator, so he could not speak.
At one point, Elliott recalls, a hospital employee told him, referring to Blunt, “You have a friend in Washington.”
Q: You saw someone or some thing during that initial period. Describe what you saw.
A: “I was not conscious for the first 12 hours, but somehow I have one very strong memory. I saw what I thought was a person in the room, wearing a white nurse's uniform. She was preparing to shock me. I talked to her and asked her if I'd had a stroke. I was fearful of anything that would affect my brain, as my mother had suffered a stroke.
“She assured me that I had actually had a heart attack, and that I should be ‘restful.' After that, I have no memory of things until several hours later.
“I didn't think it was an angel for a long time but I'm saying, ‘How could it have been?' Was it something out of this world? I'm not going to claim something I don't know.
“But if they're shocking me, it's not one person in there, right? She was by herself. Also, how could I have talked to her. I could not talk, because I was on a ventilator.”
Q: Getting off the ventilator was vital to you. Explain.
A: “I knew from my father-in-law's death and somebody else's death that if you had a ventilator for more than 10 days, your chances of surviving and getting off it it were pretty low.”
Elliott tells me he wrote notes in his hospital bed asking to be taken off the ventilator. He would also motion to doctors that he wanted the tubes out of his mouth.
The ventilator was removed his 11th day in intensive care.
He did not have open heart surgery. Instead, Elliott had a stent put in. It is still in place.
Q: After three weeks, with the help of your wife and son, you left the hospital without officially being released. You were in a hurry to fly back home. And you heard a song. Why was that song so important to you?
A: “It was ‘Live Like You're Dying' by Tim McGraw.
“I came back and it just had hit the charts. It won a Grammy in 2005.
The music video for the song prominently featured McGraw's father, former baseball player Tug McGraw, who had died of brain cancer.
“I like that — ‘live like you're dying.' You've got to do everything as quick as you can. I didn't know how long I'd live. So I started going back to the schedule as quickly as I could.
“Coming back from a heart attack, I wanted to recognize what was most important and enjoy life to its fullest. As the song says, I wanted to ‘love deeper, speak sweeter, and watch the eagles as they fly.'”
Q: I've read your book and, to be honest, I don't see how your life changed that much after the heart attack. You were a man of faith who loved his family and served his community before the heart attack — as well as after the heart attack. How did you change?
A: “I moved to a higher level of importance of policy. I had been on the City Council, and after the heart attack I asked to be appointed to the MSU Board of Governors. I went to school at MSU.
“On the board, I encouraged Clif Smart to be interim president and then supported him while I was board chairman to become the fulltime president.
“Before my heart attack, I'd served on a church board, but I never felt I was living up to my father's standards.”
Elliott's father was a minister, a traveling evangelist.
“When I thought I wouldn't live, I began thinking about eternity, and searched to find more about that. I knew about prayer. I'd seen to many things happen that others might call accident. But, as I've said, I believe nothing happens by chance, it is our responsibility to build on what we've been given.”
Q: If you believe you survived being Dead on Arrival because of a divine plan, have you thought about what your purpose is supposed to be?
A: “I've been thinking about that for the last 20 years. What is the purpose? Whatever it is, I hope it's not done yet.”
This is Pokin Around column No. 161.
