Hannibal resident John Akright considers himself a healthy guy. He is only 61 years old, he and his wife Marcy go for walks every day, and both of them keep busy and stay active. He had no idea that he was just days away from needing open-heart surgery. John has no family history of cardiac-related issues, so it never occurred to him that he might be having a heart attack one day in early November 2023. As he sat eating his lunch that day, his throat started to swell shut and his teeth kept hurting. He thought he was having an allergic reaction to something in his food, nuts possibly. John’s wife was at work, and when he called her to tell her what was happening, she became immediately concerned, she told him to head straight to the Emergency Room at Hannibal Regional Hospital.