ROCHESTER -- Dr. Sig Muller and Sig Muller Jr., father and son, have seen the hand of God work in both their lives, they say.
Dr. Muller, a retired Mayo Clinic physician, sees "the finger of God" in his rag-to-riches life story. Born in a remote town in Panama, Dr. Muller was born in the midst of the Great Depression and was 2 years old when his dad died of lung cancer. Uprooted by his mom to begin new lives as immigrants in the U.S., Dr. Muller worked his way to become a doctor of dermatology at Mayo Clinic.
For his son, Sig, a one-time Mayo High School swimming state champion, divine intervention came more abruptly. Sig was at friends' house in South St. Paul when he suffered cardiac arrest. Paramedics, using an automated external defibrillator, were able to restart Sig's heart.
Today, the two Sigs are published authors, though in very different genres. Sig Muller Jr's book, "Dying to Be the World's Best: Reignite Your Heart to Elevate Your Life" is both a comeback story and a road map about finding purpose and living the best version of one's self, Sig said. Dr. Muller's book, "Bah and the Humbug Tree," is a children's book.
A coincidence? A father and son became published authors at the same time? Perhaps. Perhaps not. A series of coincidences can pile up and seem something more. Sig devotes an entire chapter in his book to Guardian Angels.
In the 1990s, Sig worked for a company called Survivalink, a company that produced automated external defibrillators. At one time, AEDs were only to be found in hospitals and ambulances. Survivalink pioneered their dispersal and use in non-medical settings such as police cars, airplanes and golf courses. His company also worked with the Rochester police to deploy the devices locally. An AED is what restarted Sig's heart and saved his life, he said.
"When something so profound happens to you in life and you die, you look and think, 'This, this, this, this,' God had a plan," Sig said. "I didn't know that I was writing a prescription I would need that would save my life."
Whether good fortune or something more, Sig also benefited from the fact that he was with friends and not by himself when the cardiac incident happened. His friends, a husband and wife, applied CPR for eight minutes. While waiting for paramedics to arrive, the wife sang the BeeGee's "Staying Alive," a song whose rhythm mimics the tempo of recommended chest compressions. Sig only learned this afterward.
The title for his book, "Dying to be The World's Best," came from a phrase he used while in the hospital. Every time he met someone -- a doctor, a nurse, friends, family -- he told them, "You are the world's best."
He said it again and again. But for the first several days, he had no recollection saying it because of an inability to form new memories, a condition known as anterograde amnesia. But even when the condition passed, he still found himself obsessively using the phrase. And that led to further discoveries and inquiries.
"I'm asking myself, 'Why am I here?' 'Why am I still alive?' 'What is God's plan for me?'" Sig said.
Sig said he put the question -- what does it mean to be the world's best -- to several hundred people in interviews that form a core of the book. Some common themes emerged in those conversations.
"For me at this point, my mission is to help others be the world's best version," said Sig, who is also a public speaker now.
For his father, Dr. Muller, writing a children's book was a gear-change from his days writing for medical journals, for which he estimates composing hundreds of articles. At 95, he now resides at Charter House in downtown Rochester. A born story-teller, Dr. Muller's book revolves around a "joyful, playful lemur" in Madagascar and "what's a lemur?" he said.
"That's where my mind went," Dr. Muller said when asked why a children's story. "There's so many children's books about doggies and kitties. I don't do that stuff."
Dr. Muller had started the book years before but decided to finish it at his son's urging. Dr. Muller said he wrote the book for the children of Rochester and Olmsted County. Reading should be fun, he said. Dr. Muller dedicated the book to his mom, Marciana, whose decision to emigrate to the U.S. proved so pivotal in his life.
"My mother always put her children first," he said.
Both books were published under the imprint "Be the World's Best," a company Sig started as he was writing his book. Both books are available for purchase on Amazon. "Dying to be the World's Best" is available in hardcover ($24.99), paperback ($14.99) and on Kindle ($9.99). "Bah and the Humbug Tree" is available in paperback ($23.99) and on Kindle ($9.99).