High-Tech Heart Patients Reunited With Doctors On Long Island

ROSLYN, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A group of heart patients on Long Island were overwhelmed with thanks this Valentine' Day, after successful high tech heart procedures reunited them with their families and their doctors.

Among the grateful was the real-life mom of actor Kevin James.

"You literally saved my mom's life," the King of Queens said in a recorded message. "Hi mom, I love you, happy Valentine's Day."

James' mom, Janet Knipfing of Manhasset, says she tries to find humor in everything, but realized it was no joke when she found herself short of breath.

"They told her if she hadn't come to the hospital that night, if we didn't bring her in, she would not have made it," daughter Leslie Knipfing said.

Doctors say they were able to prevent a heart attack by placing a stent in her affected artery. Another patient, a teacher from New Hyde Park, contracted a virus in Central America and became the victim of a crime.

"I was stabbed twelve times and my heart never recovered," David Eisermann said.

Doctors at St. Francis said when they first met David, he was "essentially dying." They were tasked with re-circuiting his heart.

Each of the patients called themselves "living testaments" to leading edge cardiac car, with a message for folks to pay better attention to their health.