Heart Patient's 'Trip of His Life' Ends in His Death
An Indiana heart patient whose bypass surgery had given him a second chance at life died of a heart attack the day after he finished a 2,400-mile, cross-country bicycle trip.
Bicycling provided Broc Bebout almost 20 years of good health after he had a quadruple bypass surgery at age 39, and the cross-country ride served as a testament to his commitment to exercise, said his wife, Patricia Brinkman.
But the day after completing the ride from Carlsbad, Calif., to Brunswick, Ga., the 57-year-old retired engineer died Thursday near Smyrna, Tenn., on the van drive back to his home in Anderson, near Indianapolis, the Associated Press reported.
Brinkman said her husband's living to age 57 was itself a victory. After bypass surgery at age 39, he learned to eat right and take care of himself, she said.
In an e-mail to his wife before a celebratory steak dinner on Wednesday, Bebout described what the trip had meant to him: "An incredible experience with incredible people."
"It was a trip of a lifetime," she said.
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