Mike Murdoch still remembers the last thing he said before everything went dark.
It was the morning of September 8, 2025, and he was on the roof outside Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center emergency department, helping dismantle a temporary covered walkway that had connected the hospital to a portable Computed Tomography (CT) trailer. As part of Bouten Construction’s team, Mike had worked on various jobs across the Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center campus for years, and this was another day in a long line of projects.
“I think we better shore this building up a little bit,” he told his Bouten colleague on the ground level.
It was the last thing he remembers.
Moments later, Mike collapsed on the roof.
That colleague had stopped by the worksite unexpectedly that morning to check on the project. He had inadvertently been let out of a meeting early. He had no reason to be there, Mike said, but the timing could not have been more important. When Mike stopped responding, his colleague climbed up, found him slumped over and started chest compressions right there on the roof.
Mike had suffered a heart attack caused by a blocked right coronary artery. He was only steps away from the emergency department, but being on the roof complicated his immediate care.
The Spokane Fire Department responded quickly and helped bring Mike down to the emergency department, where caregivers were already preparing for him.
Mike does not remember much about those first hours. What he does remember is waking up and seeing the faces of two of his granddaughters right in front of him.
“That is what I remember coming around to,” he said.
He also remembers asking a question that now makes him laugh.
“Did my hard hat stay on?”
It did.
Mike spent several days recovering at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center before going home. But not long after, he experienced another medical emergency while at home. He suffered from serious gastrointestinal bleed. His son rushed him back to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center where he spent a few days recovering.
Mike spent several days recovering at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center before going home. But not long after, he experienced another medical emergency while at home. He suffered from serious gastrointestinal bleed. His son rushed him back to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center where he spent a few days recovering. Through it all, Mike keeps coming back to one thought. So many things had to go right for him to survive.
If the timing had been different, if his colleague had not stopped by, if CPR had not started immediately, if emergency responders had taken longer to arrive, Mike believes the outcome would have been very different.
“I should not be sitting here,” he said. “There are so many things that went right.”
“This place is filled with angels,” he said. “Absolutely filled with angels.”
He means that broadly. He sees it in caregivers. He sees it in patients and families. He sees it in the caregivers who clean rooms, cook meals, transport patients, and keep the hospital running. Working in a hospital, he says, has a way of putting life in perspective.
That perspective was already part of Mike’s outlook before his heart attack. In many ways, his experience only deepened it.
He sees meaning in the fact that he collapsed while working above the statue of Mary outside the emergency department, a statue he had taken special care to protect during that construction project.
When the temporary structure around the CT trailer was first built, Mike made sure the statue remained visible and respected. He and the crew worked around it rather than covering it up. They even lit the area. He joked at the time that they were “building a manger for Mary.”
Later, after the heart attack, one of his teammates reminded him of that care and told him maybe Mary had been watching out for him, too.
Mike does not pretend to know exactly how to explain everything that happened. He just knows he feels blessed.
Today, Mike is back at work. He says sitting still has never suited him, and after being off for about three months, he was ready to return. In a full circle moment, he is now working on the Providence Heart Institute modernization project, the same place where he received his own life-saving care.
“It is kind of weird how it comes around,” he said.
Mike talks often about the people who saved him, from colleagues, to firefighters, to emergency and cardiac care teams at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center.
“I love you. Thank you for saving my life,” he said, when asked what he would say to the caregivers involved in his care.
“I am on bonus time here,” he said with a smile. “This is all a bonus.”
And every morning, when he gets up at 4:30 a.m. and heads back to work, he knows exactly how fortunate he is to do it.
“I am just really proud to be here,” he said. “It is a beautiful thing.”
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