Denver ER doctor suffers major heart attack, wakes up permanently blind

A Colorado doctor went into sudden cardiac arrest at 40 years old and woke up in the hospital with no vision.

Although Bill Lubinsky is lucky to be alive, he is now permanently blind, and it comes with a lot of new challenges, but the community has rallied around the physician in a big way to help him with his next steps in life.

Lubinsky’s medical career was just getting started. He was an emergency room doctor who dedicated his life to pouring into his patients, but now the shoe is on the other foot. He is the patient after suffering a massive heart attack, which resulted in him permanently losing his vision.

Once simple tasks, like pouring a cup of coffee or making a bed, have now become tall tasks for Lubinsky.

“I have felt at times burdensome to my friends and family,” Lubinsky shared with FOX31’s Talya Cunningham.

It’s a burden that weighs heavily from what his life once was to what it is now. Lubinsky completed years of medical school, was a promising ER and internal medicine physician in Denver and just purchased a condo with incredible Colorado views. Those scenic views are now memories after things went dark last August.

Young, healthy and physically active Lubinsky went out for a run at Cheesman Park in the summer heat.

“I started to get really sweaty and crampy,” Lubinsky recalled.

He thought it was heat exhaustion and went home to take a cold shower, but his symptoms got worse. Lubinsky said he started to feel very weak and develop chest pains. Being a doctor himself, he knew something was not right and called 911, which likely saved his life.

“They got my name and that I was an ER physician and then I had a cardiac arrest,” Lubinsky said.

At 40 years old, he went into cardiac arrest twice and ventricular fibrillation for an hour. He was eventually put on a CPR device while doctors cleared a clot and put in stents, which also led to internal bleeding and a large blood transfusion. Lubinsky was given a 1% chance of survival.

“I woke up three days later, intubated and in an ICU,” Lubinsky remembered.

It was a medical miracle that he wasn’t brain-dead and didn’t suffer any brain damage. However, his sight was gone. Lubinsky said when he opened his eyes, he saw black darkness with strange yellow spheres.

“There was no blood flow to the optic nerves,” Lubinsky said. “My eyes are healthy, but there’s no signal to the nerve and that’s why I’m blind”.

Lubinsky spent months recovering in the ICU and a rehab facility in Craig, but as of February, he is back in his condo. A once familiar place that feels unfamiliar as he strives to relearn his home with a guide stick.

“How do I get groceries? How do I go out around the block? I’m still struggling with technology and doing my taxes was very difficult,” Lubinsky shared.

The physician is trying to find a new norm and navigate the daily challenges of taking care of himself, but the community answered the call for help. Community members rallied together to help Lubinsky gain his independence back by raising more than $30,000 for him to attend the Colorado Center for the Blind.

The center is a world-renowned school, with limited availability, attended by the visually impaired and taught by blind professionals, like Executive Director Julie Deden.

“It’s all about having a great attitude and knowing you can get your life back, and I know Bill, and that will happen for him,” Deden said. “We’re really excited to have him”.

For the next six months, for eight hours a day, the Colorado Center for the Blind will be a safe space for Lubinsky to learn Braille, use a computer, cross the street, cook and much more. He will graduate with more confidence in his disability and life skills.

From his near-death experience to waking up in darkness, Lubinsky’s outlook on life is full of light. He is fortunate and ready to conquer the challenge.

“Being blind, I’m not going to say I looked forward to it or expected it, but it’s also not the end of the world,” Lubinsky reflected.

Lubinsky has been in school for the past two weeks and shares that it’s going well. His goal is to get back to what he loves, which is practicing medicine. Lubinsky said it won’t be in the ER anymore, but he hopes that, in time and with skills learned at the Colorado Center for the Blind, he can practice telemedicine.