My grandfather died in his forties, and I often thought I’d go early. As a teenager, I was in two near-fatal accidents in cars. In 1992, I got tuberculosis on a trip to the Middle East. Without modern medicine, it would have been fatal. In 1995, I developed phlebitis, which had killed my grandfather. In 2001, I had a 95 percent blocked artery in my heart, which was solved by inserting two stents to relieve the blockage.
