Cardiac golf tourney has personal meaning for Amin

By Lethbridge Herald on May 9, 2025.

Sam Leishman
Lethbridge Herald
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

  A Lethbridge real estate agent is turning a life-changing cardiac arrest into a fundraising event for the Chinook Regional Hospital (CRH).

It was April 15, 2020 when Amin Iqbal suddenly collapsed outside of one of his downtown properties. The building had been broken into a weekprior and he was meeting with a company to have the doors replaced that day. 

He says he woke up laying on the ground with massive pain in his chest.

Thankfully, the two men Iqbal was meeting with called 911 and an ambulance was on the way from Fire Station No. 1 close by.

At just 28 years old, seven embolisms were found in Iqbal’s lungs. One had travelled to his brain causing a seizure, while another was found blocking the left atrium of his heart. His heart stopped for a total of four minutes.

“I was supposed to be dead at the scene,” Iqbal told the Herald.

A clot buster protocol was started immediately when Iqbal made it to CRH and he was placed in an induced coma for several days. He was in far too critical condition to transport to Calgary, so his care continued here in Lethbridge.

Iqbal says his medical team prepared his family for the possibility that he would have a difficult recovery, or that he would not survive at all.

Fortunately, Iqbal awoke from the coma a few days later. He says he struggled to speak, eat and walk at first, but the care he received at CRH made all the difference over his two week long stay.

“The staff were great,” Iqbal says. “I still remember two of the ladies who were my head nurses. One was more mature and she said I was her son’s age. They were always there helping me. I had to get up and try to walk for the first time, and they were there to help me every step of the way. They were very compassionate towards me.”

Iqbal says he’s still working with a specialist in Toronto to resolve the clotting issue that started this whole ordeal, but there have been no further complications five years later.

Iqbal is now in the midst of organizing the first-ever Chinook Charity Open golf tournament in the hopes of raising $25,000 for cardiac care at CRH. He has volunteered hundreds of hours in the emergency department since 2020, but wanted to do even more to express his gratitude for the people and facility that saved his life.

“In the world, cardiac disease is the number one cause of death. It might not be in Canada right now – number one is cancer – but in the South Zone, because we have a lower level of care, cardiac disease is the number one cause. We need better facilities as our city continues to grow.”

The tournament is scheduled for the afternoon of July 12 at the Henderson Lake Golf Club. Included in the $200 entry fee is a round of 18 holes, lunch, a steak dinner and the chance to win prizes.

Registration and lunch will begin at 12pm with the shotgun to follow at 1:30pm.

Iqbal says Mayor Blaine Hyggen and local cardiologist Dr. Sayeh Zielke have already confirmed their participation.

Anyone who’d like to join can contact Iqbal at 403-393-4261 to register. Further details can also be found online at thechinookcharityopen.com.