This wasn't a feeling of heartburn, which he would have normally dismissed as something he would get over.
"My chest felt weird and I felt sweaty," he said. "This was different from other times."
He wasn't thinking heart attack at the time, even though a friend of his suffered heart problems only the weekend before. Yet Dietze knew he should get to the hospital, and enlisted the help of a coworker to drive him to Bayonne Medical Center.
A former EMT, Dietze had a vague recognition of warning signals and knew from the feeling that he needed help.
So when he walked in and security told him to take a seat, he told them he couldn't wait.
In Bayonne Medical Center, chest pains or any other symptoms of a heart attack automatically changes the priority list. Time is precious when it comes to a heart attack, and the sooner doctors are able to get to a patient, the less damage the heart suffers if indeed the patient is suffering an attack.
"Once a patient mentions heart attack, that person goes to the front of the line," said Vince Lombardo, public relations representative for BMC.
Dietze was rushed into the nursing station where he received an immediate nitroglycerin patch and four aspirin tablets - both designed to help the heart and thin the blood, thus reducing the pressure on a clogged artery.
Dietze remembered getting an EKG - which is one report on how the heart is doing.
Dr. Mohammad Sandhu, chief cardiologist at BMC, said some people suffering a heart attack show a normal EKG reading, so the staff continued to react to Dietze as if he was.
"Pain from the heart and sweating is a good sign that he was suffering a heart attack," Sandhu said.
Dietze was also suffering from vernacular fibrillation, an uneven beat of the heart that can be an indication of a fatal heart attack.
"This is the cause of most sudden death heart attacks," Sandhu said.
At this point, Dietze passed out.
"People were talking. The ceiling began to spin. My ears got plugged up the way they would if you went through a tunnel. That's all I remember. I passed out," he said.
The heart had stopped. The staff immediately restarted the heart.
"I woke up and people were shouting at me, telling me to come back," Dietze recalled.
Meanwhile, the staff also evaluated where the blockage was and knew that the next step had to involve removing the blockage.
"We could have used drugs, but an angioplasty is faster and better," said Dr. Asif Mohammad of BMC.
This is a procedure that threads a tube through the artery, and with the use of a balloon removes the block.
BMC is currently part of a John Hopkins University study trying to prove the life-saving benefits of having angioplasty widely available in hospitals.
In Dietze's case, the angioplasty may have prevented much more serious damage to the heart muscle because the staff was able to clear the clog within a very short period of time.
A metal stint - designed to strengthen the artery - was also installed.
The whole process, from the moment he walked through the door to when doctors finished the angioplasty and stint, took less than an hour.
Although clearly in good physical shape, Dietze is among the millions of Americans who are considered at risk for heart attacks because of cigarette smoking and diet, things Dietze said will change.
Sandhu said smoking, diet and excess body weight are factors that contribute to heart attacks.
For Dietze, this was a wakeup call.
"This is my third chance," he said, recalling how he had survived the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. "I was in one of those buildings and I survived."
For a few days, Dietze remains under observation at the hospital and then was sent home. Stress tests show he is doing well. He will need follow-up care, of course, and medication. But for Dietze, life can go on as normal, although he promises to change some of those habits that put him at risk.
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