GETTYSBURG, Pa. — You’d never know by looking at him, but Lanny Winters nearly died this past July.
"I felt funny and I had a bit of chest pain, but I just thought it was from the heat," said Winters.
His wife, a former nurse, drove him to an ER in Chambersburg, where they did several tests.
“I could hear voices and I heard them talking about a helicopter ride," he said.
The following morning, Winters was airlifted to Wellspan York Hospital.
“The next thing I remember is when they woke me up about eight or nine days later and everything had been done," he told FOX43.
Doctors found a mitral valve had blown in his heart. “When they put a camera down there to see what was going on, [they said] it was like a garden hose spraying," said Winters.
While he remained sedated, the decision was made to put him on a life support system called, Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation, also known as ECMO.
"The ECMO machine was doing what my lungs and kidneys couldn't do to the blood," said Winters. He also received several rounds of blood during that time.
“By putting him on ECMO life support, we were able to put oxygen into his body, take over the functions of his heart and lungs long enough to have the doctor perform lifesaving surgery, to repair his mitral valve,” said the Medical Director of the ECMO program, Omair Chaudhary.
Winters was on ECMO for more than three days, but his wife never lost hope.
"I remember her whispering in my ear," he said. "She told me where I was and that she loved me."
He shared the remarkable moment when he finally came to.
"I opened my eyes and a guy was standing there. He said, 'You know who I am?' And I said, 'I suppose you might be the guy who saved my life.' And he said, 'that's correct.'"
Winters remains thankful to the staff who cared for him and for the life-saving services, and blood, he received. He also firmly believes something bigger was at play.