Massachusetts Man Credits 'Save My Life' TV Show for Doing Just That After Heart Attack

— -- Dana Mower considers himself lucky to be alive, saying it’s all because of the medical documentary TV show “Save My Life: Boston Trauma.”

Mower, 71, was watching an episode of the ABC show Sunday.

“Save My Life” showcases real-life medical cases, and the episode Mower watched dealt with a man who thought he had a simple case of heartburn and indigestion, but who was actually having a heart attack.

Mower was experiencing similar symptoms as he was watching the program. He became concerned, and went to the emergency room the next day at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, the same hospital that was featured on the episode.

There, he said medical professionals descended.

“The whole team just jumped right on me … the doctors in there were fantastic. They work as a team and -- like a well-oiled machine,” he said.

Coincidentally, Mower was also seen by Dr. Kevin Croce, who happened to be one of the doctors he’d seen on “Save My Life.”

“That was like an unreal situation,” Mower of Lynn, Massachusetts, said. “You go in and I say, ‘Doctor, you know, I was just watching you last night on TV. And all of the sudden here I am.’”

They both had “a good laugh” over the coincidence, Mower, who is doing well now, said. But Croce’s news was sobering.

The doctor told Mower he was suffering from a heart attack and needed surgery immediately.

“It was a coincidence and it was actually quite nice to see that our efforts in participating in the show were paying off a day after it aired in terms of helping someone out,” Croce said.

This isn’t the first time a TV show may have helped to save a life. An episode of the ABC hit series “Grey’s Anatomy” has been credited with helping Sarit Fishbaine discover her breast cancer.

In a May interview with Yahoo, Fishbaine said a doctor told her not to worry when she expressed concerns about having “lumpy breasts.”

The 34-year-old had been nursing her youngest child at the time and she said the doctor believed the lumps were probably due to milk collecting in certain areas of the breast.

About six months later, Fishbaine was watching an episode of the fictional medical drama and the story appeared to eerily parallel her experience. In the “Grey’s” episode, a young mother arrives at Seattle Grace Hospital for a mastectomy after her breast cancer had been mistaken for collected milk.

The episode prompted Fishbaine to seek a second opinion, where she was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer. The mother of three underwent chemotherapy followed by a mastectomy and then radiation, the Yahoo story said.