VAN ZANDT COUNTY, Texas — Joe Maddox has been a police officer for more than twenty years, but at the start of the year, his life changed forever. While on duty in Mesquite, he suffered a tear in his heart called an aortic dissection.
"We were walking back to our vehicles, and I felt a very sharp pain in my brain," Joe said. "It's almost fist-sized and the pain seemed to radiate down."
Now a detective at the Van Zandt County Sheriff's Office, Joe always knew the risks that came with the job. But he never thought something like this could happen. His partner immediately called for an ambulance and he was taken to Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.
"It was very scary, all I could think about was my family," Joe said.
Joe is married to Sabrina Maddox and has two children, Taryn and Garrett. Sabrina had gotten a call that night that Joe was being taken to the hospital but she didn't know how serious it was. It wasn't until a nurse reached out a couple of hours later that she learned of the severity.
"When she told me that his aorta had burst, I knew immediately that he probably wasn't going to make it," she said.
"My mom had come running into my room, crying and saying that we need to get up and go to the hospital," Garrett said.
As the family rushed to the hospital, Joe was barely conscious as the doctors prepped him for surgery. As they were taking him away, Joe said he went into cardiac arrest.
"The last memory I have is the chief of police had just arrived," he said. "And he yelled to me that you know, to hang on, and that they would pray for me."
He made it through his surgery and was able to go home days later. But his health problems didn't stop there.
"I woke my wife up and told her something's not right and unbeknownst to me when I was trying to talk to her she couldn't understand what I was saying," he said.
Joe had suffered a stroke. And in the coming weeks, he would battle through four more strokes and a heart attack. It wasn't until January 29th on his 45th birthday that Joe finally got to go home.
"I'm just so grateful that God has given us more time," Taryn said.
"I've since retired from the Mesquite Police Department, and I've taken a job here locally, a few minutes from the home," Joe said.
Joe and his family are facing challenges with insurance in the aftermath of his health. He says his worker's comp has been denied and his insurance won't cover his medical bills because it happened on duty. They are currently appealing the worker's comp decision. CBS19 will remain in touch with the family as they work through this.