A heart attack at the tender age of 41? It does happen, and it has happened to former Chief Financial Comptroller for the University of Belize (UB), Harry Waren Lui, at the family residence on University Boulevard just before 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 17, 2011, a week ago.
The first son of accountant and auditor Harry John Lui and his wife Norma, and stepfather to a teenaged daughter, Rianie, Harry Lui had just come home for lunch at his family’s residence when the incident happened.
According to the father of the deceased, the younger Lui parked his vehicle and stepped inside the central front gate of the residence. The elder Lui’s granddaughter, seeing him from the inside of the front door, told her grandmother that Harry was home but when she turned back, ready to greet him, she didn’t see him and suddenly realized that he was lying on the ground.
Family members rushed to his side and immediately began trying to revive him, but he lay in a twisted position, gasping for air and unable to respond to them as they called his name.
Eventually, a combination of chest compressions and CPR administered by his father stabilized him enough, so that professionals from the Belize Emergency Rescue Team (BERT), led by his childhood friend Javier Canul, could take him over to the hospital about 10 minutes later.
A normal heartbeat is about 80 – 85 beats per minute, but at the time of the attack his heart rate was down to 41. The paramedics got his heart rate up to about 45 beats per minute, and transported him to the Belize Medical Associates on St. Thomas Street, where Drs. Cawich, Gonzalez and Mark Musa gave him increased adrenaline to restore his crashing sugar level.
The elder Lui told us today that they were able to get his rate up to 57 beats per minute at one point, but the doctors noticed that it would dip repeatedly after chest compressions and CPR got it up.
Eventually, Dr. Musa told his patient’s father that further work was not likely to succeed. A heart attack patient that cannot be stabilized within half an hour of the attack becomes “brain dead” and a “vegetable”, that is, unable to respond to stimuli.
The family waited for his wife, Seleni, to come down from Belmopan, and his death was pronounced at 2:30 in the afternoon.
Harry John Lui, the father, told us that the doctors, as he told them, “did all what (they) could have humanly, possibly done” to save his son’s life.
Nonetheless, the suddenness of Harry’s passing shocked and grieved the family.
Even now, a week later, “we just cannot believe it,” Harry, Sr., said.
The cause of death has been certified as cardiopulmonary arrest due to acute myocardial infarction – the medical term for a heart attack.
The elder Lui says his son never complained of being sick, never smoked, and was a moderate drinker.
He played inter-departmental and pickup basketball and ate healthy, and gave no indication of this happening to him.
In fact, the last person he spoke to before his passing, Dr. Geraldo Flowers, a good friend and eulogist at his funeral, reported that around 12:30 on Thursday, Harry called him and asked if he wanted a lift back to Belmopan.
Dr. Flowers was already in Belmopan at the time of the call, and they chatted a while longer. Harry mentioned going home for lunch that day. He was cheerful, made no complaints and gave no warning of the danger lurking in front of him.
Harry Waren Lui attended St. Joseph’s Primary School, St. John’s College (high school) and St. John’s College (sixth form) before majoring in accounting and business management at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami and Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
He worked part-time at a Florida company and previously in Belize at the Insurance Corporation of Belize (ICB) and Vasquez & Company, but he spent the majority of his career at the University of Belize and predecessor the University College of Belize (UCB) as financial controller, interim vice president and chief financial controller.
From the foundation of UB in 2000 until his departure in 2009, in the midst of a contretemps between the university’s board of trustees, teachers and students, Lui worked to put the university on a solid financial footing, and for the most part, did so.
At the time of his death, he worked at the Statistical Institute of Belize (SIB) as finance and administration director.
Lui was also an avid sportsman and was the hidden genius behind the rise of the UB Black Jaguars basketball team, coached by Kevin Siroki, which captured first place in the Central American University Games basketball tournament in 2007.
Siroki remembers Lui as someone who always put a smile on his face, a person he always wanted to be around, and the biggest supporter of the Black Jaguars, sharing in the team’s successes, bankrolling them financially and even worrying before the big games just like the coaches.
His family remembers him as a great cook, kind, friendly, warm, and funny. He generally kept to himself but welcomed friends. He was also devoted to his wife Seleni, who he married only 3½ months ago (in July), and his family.
Harry Waren Lui was buried in Belmopan following funeral services at Our Lady of Guadalupe Co-Cathedral.
He is survived by his parents Harry and Norma; brothers Arturo and Emilio; sister Andrea; wife Seleni and daughter Rianie; niece Liliana; other relatives and friends.
Amandala extends sincere condolences to the family of the late Harry Waren Lui. May he rest in peace.