CivicBroward County, FL › November 18, 2025

Steve Sax Video Clip - Nov 18, 2025

Broward County, FL County Commission November 18, 2025 4 minutes
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Transcript

Speaker0:00

Thank you for having me today. My name is Steve Sachs, and I'm just here to say thank you to all the commissioners. I'd like to take just a second to tell you my brief story. So I played Major League Baseball for 17 years, and when I played, I always tried to stay in great physical shape. Since leaving baseball, I've tried to continue staying in that great physical shape. In this year, I've been doing martial arts like I have since I was 22. I've always had a healthy diet. I've took care of myself and really just kept my health number one. So I know this Mark Bogan guy, and every year, he would come down to the Dodger Spring Training Fantasy Camp in Arizona. And so this summer, I was taking a short trip to Florida, and I called Mark and told him that I was going to be in town. Mark asked me if I would take this heart test, but I responded that I'd always been in great shape. I eat healthy, and I work out extensively. I believe that I did not need the test, after all. I didn't have any symptoms whatsoever. So after he kept being a pain in the neck and trying to persuade me, I decided to take the test before I went back to California. As a matter of fact, I believe one of our doctors is here today, Dr. Niederman, that also was able to view my test that day. And since I went back to California, I was advised after the test that I needed to see my doctor immediately. And to my shock and my surprise, I learned that I was 95 to 99 percent blocked in my four major arteries. I was told I needed open heart surgery and a quadruple bypass immediately. So about five months ago, I had open heart surgery. The bottom line is this, ladies and gentlemen, that test saved my life. I was told that if I didn't get the test, I would probably have had a major heart attack sometime soon. And while Mark Bogan may have come up with this project, it would be nothing without the support and the funding of this commission. So I'm here to say to all of you commissioners, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support and for the funding. Without your support for this project, there would be nothing. So thank you for saving my life. I also want to thank the Viola family for supporting this program as well. It's going to save thousands of lives. And ladies and gentlemen, closing, I want to share this personal issue with you as well. My dad, my father, John, in 1983, died of the same affliction in June 10th, 1983. My surgeon told me that I could have my surgery on either June 9th or June 10th. I chose June 10th because I was able to change a narrative in my family of death to a sense of renewal because now I've been renewed and I've been able to change that whole idea about June 10th. Thank you so much for having me today.