Lying on a hospital bed, Barry Brown thought everything was coming at him too fast.

It was July 2008, months before Brown would be selected for Project Prometheus, a groundbreaking University of Miami research study during which his damaged heart would be repaired using stem cells from his own bone marrow.

But at that moment, the chest tightness and fatigue that had plagued the newly retired Air Force physical trainer was a mystery. Then came the deep congestion that made his chest feel hollow and numb, keeping him from finishing routine workouts.

After a battery of endocardiograms and stress tests, the news came from doctors at the Miami Veterans Administration Hospital that Brown -- now an ROTC instructor and assistant football and baseball coach at Booker T. Washington High School -- was living with clogged arteries, three blockages that had weakened his heart to 40 percent capacity.

Then the bombshell: ''Are you aware that you've had a heart attack?'' Brown's doctor said.

Brown was 38.

'I was thinking, `Why me? I've lived a good life. I don't deserve this,' '' Brown said. ``There was some self-pity there.''

He soon found that his affliction offered a unique opportunity.

A SPECIAL PROJECT

It was in the VA hospital that Brown first met Dr. Juan Pablo Zambrano, an assistant professor of medicine at UM's Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine. Brown listened as Zambrano detailed the specifics of an experimental bone marrow stem cell procedure, a joint venture between UM and Johns Hopkins University.

The effort was to be led by Zambrano and Dr. Joshua Hare, chief of UM's Cardiovascular Division and director of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute. The surgery would be performed by Dr. James Symes, chief of cardio-thorasic surgery at UM.

Zambrano's pitch pulled no punches.

No, Brown might not pass the requisite tests to be in the study group. If he did, he still would have to wait four weeks for bypass surgery after the extraction. The time would allow stem cells to grow enough material in cultures so it could be injected into the weakened and scarred areas of Brown's heart.

And there still was a chance that Brown would not be given the treatment at all. One-third of the study group -- the control group -- is given a placebo injection instead of actual stem cells.

There are no guarantees, Zambrano explained. That's what makes it experimental.

Brown accepted.

FAMILY TIES

The phone call was tense, but it had to be made.

''Mom, I need to know if you remember anyone in your family having a history of heart disease,'' Brown said into the receiver. ``I had a heart attack.''

And with those words, an icy 10-year silence began to melt.

It had been that long since Brown had spoken to his mother. Raised by his father in Massachusetts, Brown had always been distant with her, and they grew further apart after he joined the Air Force.

''But I really wanted to clear the air,'' Brown said. ``I thought that if God feels it's my time to go, I shouldn't leave any grudges behind.''

In the wake of his ordeal, Brown has continued to mend fences. After his retirement, he relocated from Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas to South Florida to be closer to his children. His son and a daughter live in Fort Myers with their mother.

''It kind of hurt our plans for the summer,'' Brown said. ``I had to explain to [the kids] that there would be times I wouldn't feel good, that I wouldn't always have a lot of energy or want to go out. I had to tell them that I might die.''

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