CAROLINA BEACH, N.C. — February is American Heart Month, a time to focus on cardiovascular health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that over 800,000 people in the United States have a heart attack annually. 

The CDC also says one in five of those is silent, meaning the damage is done, but the person experiencing the heart attack may not be aware of it.

That’s exactly what happened to a man from Carolina Beach who learned firsthand just how important keeping up with your heart health is.

Dennis Barbour, a 73-year-old from Carolina Beach, has always loved fishing.

Dennis Barbour, who survived a heart attack last year, loves fishing in Carolina Beach. (Spectrum News 1/Natalie Mooney)

“Well, I’ve been fishing since I was so young I probably don’t remember what the age was,” Barbour said. “But it had to be around 4 years old.”

But last June, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

“I had no desire to even pick up a fishing pole or even tie a rig on the end of my fishing pole,” Barbour said. “No desire to do it.”

That’s because he had a heart attack.  He says he felt chest pain, tightness and shortness of breath — all of which are symptoms of a heart attack.  However, he says he didn’t realize it was a heart attack at the time.

“I was still kind of in denial even though the results came through because I was feeling so much better,” Barbour said. “I didn’t feel like I had a heart attack.”

What felt like a minor heart attack quickly turned into something much more serious. Barbour was told he needed a double-bypass surgery to get rid of two blockages in his arteries.

“And again that was a shocker,” he said. “Because I would have thought that if you had that bad of blockages, you would have been feeling a lot worse than I felt at that time and even before.”

Heat attack survivor Dennis Barbour casts a line at Carolina Beach. (Spectrum News 1/Natalie Mooney)

It was after his surgery that Barbour says he wasn’t feeling up to doing much of anything, let alone go fishing.

Now, thanks to Novant Health’s Cardiac Rehabilitation Program he’s able to do what he loves again.

It’s a medically supervised, three-month program that is designed to strengthen your heart, lower blood pressure and cholesterol, maintain a healthy weight and control diabetes.

He says the program helped him get back to his active lifestyle, and most importantly, back to fishing. 

Like Barbour, some people may not realize they’re experiencing signs and symptoms of heart disease or heart attack. 

That’s why every February there is an effort to try to raise awareness and promote health habits. 

The American Heart Association says this year’s American Heart Month will have a strong focus on CPR and getting people trained to perform it.