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He was taking the situation seriously, however, even if outwardly he was staying calm. Girdler recalled that at one point he asked someone if he needed to be flown out to another hospital, and that person told him,“ Rick, I don’ t know that you’ ll make it to fly you out of here.”
The problem turned out to be a total blockage of his right artery. In a 2022 interview, Girdler told the Commonwealth Journal,“ If it had been the left artery,
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I wouldn’ t be able to talk to you.”
Girdler had an EKG and was given a stent in the LCRH Cath Lab.
He credits Dr. Michael McKinney for saving his life.
Up until that event, Girdler said he had not had any health issues or warnings that indicated anything was the matter. He did have to take blood pressure medication – high blood pressure runs in his family, he said – but all previous checks of his
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cholesterol showed no problems.
“ I was out of the hospital in two days,” he said, feeling better than he had been.
In his recovery, he admits that he may not have followed doctors’ orders to the letter, but he has adjusted his diet to a more heart-healthy one.
That includes switching to boiled or grilled versions of the chicken and fish that he used to eat, and limiting beef to an occasional lean filet.
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“ I love fried chicken better than anything in this world, and I’ ve had to swear off of that,” he laughed.“ Fried fish is the best stuff in the world, and grilled fish is about at the bottom, in my eyes. I do like( grilled) salmon, thank goodness. But I have to, and try to my best to, eat a lot healthier.”
He also tries to stay as active as possible, noting that, at least up until this year, his stays in Frankfort required a lot of walking to and from the State Capitol
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