By Harry Minium
At first, he felt a little lightheaded. Within a few minutes, he was dizzy and began to sweat..
He stepped into his office to relax and clear his head. But then he felt a tingling sensation in his left arm, the classic warning of a stroke or heart attack.
That's when Old Dominion assistant basketball coach Bryant Stith began to worry. He thought about his father, who had a stroke 12 years ago that left him unable to get around on his own, and his grandfather, also partially paralyzed by a stroke.
He knew he was out of shape and pushing things too hard. Long hours. Meals on the go. Too many long car, bus or plane rides.
But he was just 48, and a former NBA and University of Virginia basketball star. I'm too young for this, he thought to himself.
It's probably no big deal, he said. So he drove himself to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital without calling his wife – and by the way, that was a bad decision on two fronts – and checked himself in.
After a nurse took his blood pressure, the look on her face told him this was serious. He was wheeled back to a room for an EKG. The results weren't promising. His blood pressure was through the roof at 221 over 113, and likely because of stress, his heart was beating like a rabbit.
He was assured he hadn't had a heart attack, but was admitted to the hospital, where he was given medication to reduce his blood pressure. By the next day, his blood pressure was 150 over 96.
"I had a chance to do a lot of thinking laying in that bed in the emergency room," Stith said. "I told myself that I had to do better with my health.
"I knew I was overweight. I was at 268 pounds. I knew that my eating habits weren't very good. I knew I had to improve things."
His family physician, Dr. Randall Fedro, told him later that week that he needed to go on blood pressure medication.
"I said, 'Doc, I don't want to go on medication,'" he said. "Give me one month and allow me to make some changes in my life. If I come back and my blood pressure isn't any better, if my physical condition hasn't improved, then I'm willing to go on medication.' "
"Deal," Dr. Fedro replied.
What Stith has done since that trip to the hospital six months ago has been remarkable and is a lesson for all of us who work too many hours and allow thing to get in the way of eating healthy and getting enough exercise.
Stith went on a strict exercise regimen, working out every day for at least two hours. He changed his diet. No more fried chicken or hamburgers or sausage.
He quit drinking sweet tea and sodas. "I eat apple sauce and oatmeal," he said. "I work out on the elliptical machine and then run on the treadmill.
"The exercise helped but once I change my eating habits, the weight just melted off me. It made me a completely different person."
After a month, he'd lost 19 pounds and has kept on losing. He's now down to 245 points, not bad for a 6-foot-5 former forward.
He calls that incident last August "divine intervention." God, he says, was sending him a message.
"I've always believed things happen for a reason," he said. "The handwriting is always on the wall, whether or not we chose to read it or not.
"Gradually, I was headed down the slippery slope. I had to be knocked down in order to get back up.
"I'm so glad I paid attention to the signs."
When he called his wife, the former Barbara Dilworth, from the hospital, she rushed to be by his side. She scolded him, and rightfully so, for not calling her right away or having someone drive him to Norfolk General. You could have had a stroke on your way there, she said.
Barbara was Bryant's childhood sweetheart who dated him while he was attending U.Va. and she was studying at ODU. They've known each other for almost all their lives.
After she finished talking to Bryant, she hugged her husband.
"When I was in the hospital room by myself, I was thinking about my wife, I was thinking about my kids," said Stith, who has two sons who played basketball at ODU and two daughters who ran track at East Carolina.
"I wanted to be around my grandchildren who have yet to be born. I wanted to be able to walk my daughters down the aisle.
"All of the things fathers dream about with their kids, it all starts with me."
After a few weeks of exercising, he noticed he had more energy. The more he worked out, the better he felt.
"I'm sleeping so much better," he said. "I'm not waking up in the middle of the night like I used to.
"I didn't realize it at the time, but every day I would hit the wall at 1 or 2 in the afternoon. Every day, I'm so much more vibrant. My total being is just different."
Stith was raised on a farm in Freeman, Va., an unincorporated town in Brunswick County about 90 minutes west of Norfolk. His parents woke him up early every day and made him do daily chores.
Men in Brunswick County work hard. But as he recalls, they often didn't take care of themselves.
"The men in my family didn't believe in going to the doctor or to the hospital," Stith said. "It was seen as a sign of weakness.
"I remember my Dad telling me he never remembered his Dad missing a day of work when he was growing up. I don't remember my Dad missing a day of work.
"Those guys always pushed through when they were sick.
"I didn't want to repeat their mistakes. I wanted to have a better life in my later years than they had."
His wife and children helped him by joining him in eating healthier and at times working out with him.
"Everyone was invested in my health, which made it so much easier," he said. "They have held me accountable."
Stith sat down with his father to talk about his health shortly after the incident, and in some ways, it wasn't an easy conversation.
Norman Stith has always been his son's biggest fan, but the stroke he had more than a decade ago prevents him from going to many ODU games.
"I told my Dad that I had a scare," Stith said. "I shared that with him and he told me that your health is the most important thing.
"My father can't get around. He lost the use of the left side of his body. He says he regrets beating his body up to the point where he's in the position he is now.
"He told me to take care of myself so I won't end up like him.
"Those are words that resonate with me."
And they should resonate with all of us.
Contact Minium: hminium@odu.edu
Minium: An “Intervention From God” May Have Saved the Life of ODU Basketball Assistant Coach Bryant Stith
