LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Back in October, Tim Myer started feeling some chest pain.

“I noticed it more when I was mowing the lawn and I’d have to take a break, but I figured it was just heat,” he said.

The pain didn’t go away, so he went to the doctor and found out he recently had a heart attack.

“It’s kinda scary, especially when you didn’t know you had one,” Myer said. “But when they did further tests, I guess one of my arteries was blocked 100% and another one was blocked 60%.”

So doctors put two stents in and two months later, he returned to work.

In May, Myer had another heart test and found out there was enough blockage to require a quadruple bypass surgery. He had a hard time understanding the news.

“How can that much blockage come up in six months?” he asked.

And while all this was happening, Myer was trying to collect unemployment.

He filed for the couple months he was out after the first heart issue, and now he’s trying to get benefits for the time he missed since May.

His wife Susan has handled calling the unemployment office every day looking for answers. They haven’t been able to get an in-person appointment either, because they’re always booked in Louisville and neither of them can go out-of-town.

“You want to talk to somebody, explain your situation, but you just can’t,” she said.

Just this week, they received a letter denying their claim from October because of an identity verification issue.

Myer said he tried to file properly, but the website was difficult to navigate and he had no one to talk to about it.

“That’s kind of stupid. I understand there’s COVID and there’s a lot of people unemployment, but you have to send correspondence,” he said. “There has to be a way for somebody to contact somebody if you have questions or if you need answers.”

The Kentucky Labor Cabinet reports 123,334 unresolved unemployment claims, including 72.542 with no fraud or identity issues. Those numbers have gone up since June 23, where there were 119,254 unresolved claims and 63,014 with no fraud or identity issues.

Gov. Andy Beshear said the state has been trying for more than a year to hire a company to do a complete overhaul of the state’s unemployment system, and now they have to send out a new request for bids after the projected cost of the project grew exponentially during the pandemic.

“While I wished it had been out before, the entire game changed with the level and sophistication of cyber attacks, we believe many of which come from foreign countries that want to see us fail,” Beshear said during a press conference Thursday.

Beshear also called on lawmakers to approve more permanent workers for the unemployment office in the next legislative session.

Spectrum News 1 reached out to a spokesman for the governor’s office and for the Kentucky Labor Cabinet seeking comment on Myer’s claim Friday afternoon.

Not having enough income for the months Tim couldn’t work has taken a toll on his family.  

“I know roughly how much money I’m going to bring in every week and I know we have money to pay bills, keep up with the mortgage, buy food, and when I’m off, it creates extra stress on me, extra stress on Susan,” Myer said.

Myer expects he’ll be able to go back to work next month, and he’s hopeful they’ll be able to get back on track.