Michigan Man Sets Record By Outliving Doctors Who Only Gave Him 5 Years

Dr. Bernard Ozinga of Zeeland has lived a pretty accomplished life without any precursors. He is a former dentist, husband, father and even now a grandfather.

He's currently 91 years old, and in those 91 years, he has also beaten some pretty incredible odds that were set against him when he was in his late thirties.

It all stared back in 1970, when at the age of 39 he had a heart attack. At the time when it happened, Dr. Ozinga went to Blodgett Hospital to seek treatment.

Thankfully after heart surgery, they were able to save his life. But it came with one bit of bad news.

They told him while they'd saved him for now, he should only expect to make it another 5 years based on previous surgeries that were the same as his. At the time it was a newer surgery, and people rarely made it long after having it.

Turns out, they were wrong. He survived another 52 years after they did a bypass on his arteries, which made him outlive his entire surgical team, as well as possibly setting a world record.

In fact, after someone pointed this out to him, he and his wife Lynda applied to the Guinness Book of World Records for "Longest Living Heart Bypass Patient" in the world.

He thinks he has a pretty good shot at holding the world  record, because the only other record he could find was for someone who lived 45 years after having the same surgery.

Unfortunately, Dr. Ozinga and his wife are not expecting to hear back from Guinness due to the nature of the record, but that's okay. For them, they just happy for the life they gained together.

Either way, it's an incredible accomplishment that Dr. Ozinga could possibly share the page with some other Michigan world record holders