Heart Attack

Rosie O'Donnell got a scary reminder of her mortality last week when she had a heart attack at home. She calls it "a miracle" that she survived. O'Donnell revealed the attack in verse form on her blog Monday: "i am happy to be alive/last week i had a heart attack. " After feeling an ache in her chest and becoming clammy, then very hot and throwing up, she decided to check her symptoms online: "i had many of them/but really? - i thought - naaaa. " Then she did something that she credits with saving her life: "i took some bayer aspirin/thank god/saved by a tv commercial/literally.

On the day after he died, Lee Weyer was remembered as a nice guy, a good friend, an accomplished umpire. But mostly, Weyer was remembered as a true professional. Weyer, 51, died of a heart attack Monday night at Mills Hospital in San Mateo, Calif., after playing basketball with fellow umpire Ed Montague's children, according to authorities. No drugs or alcohol were found in Weyer's body during an autopsy yesterday. "He was playing basketball with Montague's children when he complained of shortness of breath," said Hugh Swaney, senior investigator with the San Mateo County coroner's office.

A 72-year-old woman died this morning after suffering an apparent heart attack behind the wheel of her Jeep and crashing into four parked vehicles in Philadelphia's Port Richmond section, police said. Police said the woman, whose name has not been released, lost control of the vehicle about 3:45 a.m. on the 2600 block of East Thompson Street. Medics transported the woman to Episcopal Hospital, where she died at 4:10 a.m.  

Phoenixville Borough Council member Robert J. Gray was hospitalized Saturday after having a heart attack at his home, according to Phoenixville Hospital officials. On Tuesday afternoon, Gray, 66, was listed in serious condition at Phoenixville Hospital. Later the same day, he was transferred to Presbyterian- University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia. A spokeswoman there said Wednesday that she was not authorized to release his condition. Gray, a Democrat on the Republican-controlled council, represents the Fifth Ward on the 12-member Borough Council and is a member of its ordinance committee.

Hatboro Police Chief Joseph Camp was admitted to Abington Memorial Hospital early Tuesday morning after apparently suffering a heart attack, borough officials said. Camp, 53, was listed in stable condition yesterday afternoon at the hospital's coronary care unit. A hospital spokesperson said the hospital had been asked by the Camp family not to release additional details. Camp was taken from his Hatboro home at about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday after complaining of chest pains and sweating profusely, Hatboro Mayor Joseph Celano said.

A cabdriver, 64, may have suffered a fatal heart attack Tuesday morning before his car crashed into two other vehicles in West Philadelphia, police said. The smashup occurred about 5:30 a.m. at South 37th and Chestnut Streets in University City, police said. Police said the cabbie, whose name has not been released, was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was pronounced dead at 6:03 a.m. The front end of his cab was smashed in by the impact of the two crashes.

IT WAS KEPT A SECRET longer than one might expect, but People magazine reports Rosie O'Donnell suffered a heart attack last week. As Rosie is one of the more polarizing celebs Tattle has ever written about, Internet comments sections are probably full of good (and not so good) wishes. According to People , Rosie, 50, played Internet doctor when she was beset by painful symptoms and took a Bayer aspirin (product placement not paid for) as she'd seen in ads. "Thank god/saved by a tv commercial/literally," she blogged Monday.

Jim Maloney, the longtime assistant to Temple University basketball coach John Chaney, died last night after apparently suffering a heart attack while driving on the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. Maloney, 62, was stricken while driving east across the Benjamin Franklin Bridge around 6:30 p.m. and crashed into another car, according to Delaware River Port Authority spokesman Joseph Diemer. Jeanne Chaney, wife of the Temple head coach, said early this morning that her husband was at the Maloneys' Haddonfield home with the Maloney family and had rushed there as soon as he heard the news.

Matthew C. Ploppert, a Maple Shade man who faces the death penalty for burning to death a partially blind man, tried to mislead police into believing that the victim had died of a heart attack and that he had set the fire in a moment of panic. In a tape-recorded statement Ploppert made to police that was played before a Burlington County Superior Court judge yesterday, Ploppert admitted pouring lighter fluid on the body of Bruce Barckley and starting a fire in the victim's Burlington City home.