Tande receives supernatural warning from mother before heart attack: ‘I lost her 20 years ago’ | Interviews

Former volleyball player Tande54 years old, who suffered a heart attack 13 days ago, is still scared when he remembers that one of his heart arteries was 98% blocked and the other two were 78% and 73%.

“It was a shock, because my life has always been very regimented. I never drank, I never smoked, I never took drugs. I’m an athlete, but that doesn’t mean I get a passport for eternity, I’m people (laughter). I wanted to warn [na rede social] If it happened to me, I take care of myself, and I’m a sport… It’s important that everyone gets a check-up”, he advises.

Despite exercising and maintaining the recommended weight for your height [ele mede 2 metros]Tande is aware that he neglected his health care.

“Where’s my mistake? I hadn’t had a check-up for five years. I ate a sweet here, another there, some junk food. I spent a year and a half before the pandemic, two more years after the pandemic, and a year and half with lectures to all sides of Brazil without doing a check-up”, he recalls.

Carelessness with health

The former athlete lists the symptoms he had. “Every time I did some activity, climb the stairs in my house, I was out of breath. And then where does the high-performance athlete take me? ‘I have to improve my aerobics”, he recalls, saying that he felt severe pain during a trip to Disney parks, in the United States, with her children at the end of 2023.

“We ran, but it felt like I was being stabbed in the lung. I grabbed my jaw and pressed it, in some cases they say it’s going to the tooth, I felt it echoing in my ear.”

After the scare, Tande has seen the heart attack as a “mission” to raise awareness about health care. “I’m a spiritualist, but I believe that my father in heaven gave me a mission that I could handle, so I could help raise awareness among people. I don’t complain: ‘damn, 54 years old, I’ve always done everything, I just kicked the bucket sometimes in a sweetie, a soft drink… But to do this damage to me’. It was heavenly dad”, he believes.

“I always delayed [o check-up]. Men are very fearful, women are not, they are spectacular. I think because you have a son. Men are more sexist. I went for a physical exam when I was 54, my brother was 60. My brother-in-law lost his father to prostate cancer because he didn’t do it. You have to do a check-up, anticipate problems, prevent them”, he reaffirms.

Hours before the heart attack and maternal “warning”

Hours before going to the hospital — where he was diagnosed with a heart attack in the early hours of April 13 –, Tande was having fun at his sister’s 58th birthday, also a former beach volleyball player and two-time Olympic medalist. Adriana Samuel.

“My sister’s birthday was on April 12th, on a Friday, in a wonderful restaurant in Jardim Botânico [Zona Sul do Rio]. My sister was dancing, me too. I went up the stairs and didn’t feel anything,” she says, remembering that, after the celebration, she took everyone home.

“When we were going down [do restaurante], I coughed and my brother-in-law said: ‘do you have the flu?’ I said: ‘I have a strange cough, I’m short of breath’. And he said: ‘you have to seek help’. But it was already one in the morning and I thought: ‘I’m not going to go into the hospital at one in the morning from Friday to Saturday’. I just came from a lecture, I’m tired as hell, you know what? I’m going tomorrow”, he recalls.

At that moment, however, Tande reports feeling her mother’s presence. “When I say that, I turn to the left and the palpitation returns. And a voice came in my ear, which I’m sure was my mother: ‘go to the hospital’. ‘Hi?’ ‘Go to the hospital’. The voice was clear and strong in my ear. I lost my mother 20 years ago, she passed away at 63 and my father at 65”, he says, emotionally.

After leaving everyone at home, Tande informed his children — Yasmin24, and Yagoof 20 [da relação com a ex-esposa, Lisandra Souto, de 49] that he would go to the hospital.

“My daughter said: ‘I’m going with you’. And I said: ‘no need, it’s late’. At that moment, I said: ‘go rest and I’ll give you a hand’. I went to the hospital, arrived at 1:45 am, walking, driving, I didn’t feel nothing,” he says.

“When I enter the hospital and receive the diagnosis of a heart attack, I have a flashback of my life in the last 4 months. I had a heart attack 4 months ago, I just didn’t die because of the ramifications on my heart, which I have because of the sport. It was the that made me not die. I’m alive for the sport”, he says.

In addition to winning gold at the 1992 Barcelona Games, Tande was also champion of the Volleyball World League in 1993 and played beach volleyball. After retiring as an athlete, he became a commentator and presenter of Globo sports programs, as well as a motivational speaker. In 2019, he released a book in which he tells his professional journey, Life’s a game.