Coach given months to live after diagnosed with disease that disproportionately affects Black Americans

Black History Month and Heart Month both fall in February. Health experts say this connection should not be ignored.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for everyone, but it develops earlier and deaths are disproportionately higher in Black Americans.

Harold Pearson, or simply Coach P, is the athletic director at Avant Garde Academy in Hollywood. He’s athletic and active, and then – a doctor’s appointment forever changed his life ... and saved it.

“He came in and he took a look at me and said, Coach, I got some news to tell you, and then you're not going to like it. He said, you're dying,” Pearson recounted.

Doctors at Cleveland Clinic in Weston gave the then-50-year-old just a few months to live or get a heart transplant.

“I had all the classic symptoms, shortness of breath, swelling in the stomach and legs from fluid retention ... we had all the symptoms and anything you look up, heart failure. I had them all,” he told NBC6.

Pearson was young but had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure years before. Cardiovascular diseases kill more Americans than any other cause, and the American Heart Association says the risks of getting those diseases are even higher for people of color.

Dr. Marcus St. John, Baptist Health cardiologist with Miami Cardiac and Vascular Institute, has been passionate about identifying trends, especially in the Black community.

“In a nutshell, many of the risk factors, the things that lead to heart disease, are more prevalent in Black and minority communities, things like high blood pressure, things like smoking, things like obesity, things like diabetes,” Dr. St. John said.

Dr. St. John says some of that is due to inequities or lack of access to health care or insurance, or simply transportation to the doctor’s office. He also says there are cultural and historical factors that may lead Black communities to not trust the healthcare system.

Pearson says he was someone who was reluctant to go to the doctor’s office.

“People don't want bad news. You know, you feel like when you go to the doctor, I felt like when I go, went to the doctor, I was going, I was going there for bad circumstances,” Pearson said.

He did get bad news, but at the end of the day, it’s news that saved him.

Life has changed since he got a heart transplant.

“Oh, you know, so many people think take things for granted. You know, just simply walking outside to your car, walking in the grocery store,” Pearson said.

Lessons Coach P, now 59 years old, imparts to his student-athletes that go far beyond the hardwood.

Dr. St John said the burden of heart disease is decreasing but not as quickly in the Black community. They say the word is getting out more and more through community partners and neighborhood health clinics, but it’s a conversation he hopes transcends just heart and Black History Month.