A man suffered a massive heart attack minutes after the false missile alert in Hawaii.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Tuesday that Sean Shields, 51, started violently throwing up while at the beach on Oahu.
The newspaper says he then called his 10-year-old daughter and adult son to say goodbye.
Sean Shields, pictured with girlfriend Brenda Reichel, suffered a heart attack during the false missile alert that shook Hawaii on Saturday
Then he drove himself and his girlfriend to a health center where she says he collapsed in the waiting room.
Shields’ girlfriend, Brenda Reichel, says medical staff performed CPR and transported the man to a hospital, where he had emergency surgery.
She says Shields had no previous heart problems. He survived the heart attack.
News of his condition comes amid continued fallout from the Saturday incident that caused panic throughout Hawaii for 38 minutes.
Visitors and residents were awoken by a terrifying alert ordering them to take cover as a ballistic missile rocketed towards the island at 8.07am Saturday.
He was on a beach in Oahu when he began to projectile vomit. He drove himself and his girlfriend to a hospital
Reichel said he had not suffered any previous heart problems
The alert sent to phones read: ‘BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL’.
At the same time as the phone alert, an emergency alert was broadcast across radio and television networks.
It told viewers and listeners: ‘If you are outdoors, seek immediate shelter in a building. Remain indoors well away from windows. If you are driving, pull safely to the side of the road and seek shelter.’
Over the next 38 minutes, while bungling officials sought to correct the mistake, families huddled in bathtubs and garages crying and praying while waiting for the missile to hit.
Some placed their children in storm drains while others desperately messaged their loved ones to say their final goodbyes.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Tuesday morning that the agency will be working with states to follow proper protocols when issuing safety alerts and can quickly retract incorrect alerts like Hawaii’s warning of a ballistic missile over the weekend.
Senator Mazie Hirono, a Hawaii Democrat, said it’s clear that human error initiated the false alert.
Cars drive on the H-1 Freeway in Honolulu after the alarm – which remained in place for 38 minutes – was declared false
Hawaiian and federal authorities are working to determine how to prevent similar fiascoes in the future
But she worries that system failures allowed it to go uncorrected for too long, nearly 40 minutes.
Hirono said ‘this had the potential for being totally catastrophic’.
Nielsen told a Senate panel Tuesday the department had been unaware that Hawaii officials did not have a mechanism in place to address false alarms and retract them.
She also said the Department of Homeland Security is examining how the U.S. government can quickly verify the accuracy of alerts with agencies such as the Department of Defense.
Governor David Ige, meanwhile, has appointed a state Army National Guard official to oversee a review of Hawaii’s emergency management process.
Ige appointed state Army National Guard Brigadier General Kenneth Hara on Monday.
The governor says Hara will provide a report in in two months.
Some changes have already been made, including requiring two people to approve emergency alerts.
Officials said a state employee clicked the wrong link and activated a real alert instead of an internal test.
There was no system for retracting the false alarm.
