Coun. Gord Fuller is planning for his return to council just five weeks after suffering a major heart attack.
“I’m going to give it about a month, that’s what we think it will take,” said Fuller, who aims to take things slow but finds it tough not to be at the council table.
“This was the fifth time I tried to get on council and I finally made it and along comes a bad heart. It’s a bit frustrating but I’ll get there.”
Fuller, a first-time Nanaimo city councillor and community advocate, is recovering at home after suffering a massive heart attack in late January that had him on life support.
He was found slumped in his vehicle on the side of the road in cardiac arrest Jan. 25 and was immediately given CPR by a Good Samaritan. As soon as the news was made public, social media was teeming with well wishes and support from residents. A Go Fund Me account for Fuller was also set up.
It’s phenomenal, says Fuller, who has taken to social media to let people know he “beat the odds” and to thank them for their support.
“I do things for others not expecting any reward whatsoever and then when something happens to me, and the number of people that have come forward, the thank yous, the offers of prayers ... the support that’s been out there, it brings me to tears, literally, that I am respected that much,” Fuller said.
He has also met with Randy Cobb, the man who gave him CPR when he went into cardiac arrest and whom Fuller had happened to have gone to school with decades ago. Call it a miracle or a “hell of a coincidence,” Fuller says, but if Cobb hadn’t been there, recognized he was unconscious and started CPR, “I wouldn’t be talking to you right now.”
Fuller said it was his first heart attack and said it signals that it’s time for him to look after himself, not just others.
He has been a community advocate since 2002, and currently runs a community assistance program for the chronically homeless through the Nanaimo Youth Services Association.
For more information on the fundraising initiative, please visit www.gofundme.com/le987c.