Miss Becky's Blog

Smiley's HEART Miracle!!

Smiley's HEART Miracle!

On May 7, 2006 my husband, Ken, who some of you call "Smiley" experienced a "heart attack". Thanks to the "miracles of modern medicine" and his otherwise healthy, strong, active body, he is fine now and the doctors say he has at least 15 more years of life! Here's the story, if you're interested.

It was a Sunday evening. I had gone to Provo that afternoon so I could drive my Dad to the airport early the next morning. Ken/Smiley stayed home that day and was resting since he had been busy the last couple of days at a basketball camp for his high school team. Around 6 or 7 pm he felt some tightness or discomfort in his chest. Thinking it was indigestion and since he had not been moving that day, he went outside in our backyard, did some walking around, hit some golf balls for an hour and a half. When he came in the house, the pressure in his chest was worst, so he went to the computer and looked up the signs of a heart attack on the Internet. He had only read the first paragraph and realized that, yes, he was experiencing all the signs of a heart attack, including shortness of breath now.

Since I was not home, he called our son, Jason, who was at his office that night doing some work, to come and take him to the hospital. Jason was only about 10 minutes away and he could tell from the sound of Ken's voice that he was in trouble. Ken went out on our front porch (just outside the front door of our house) and laid down there, as it was easier to breath, to wait for Jason. (Jason's wife found Ken there and thought he was dead!! She told me that we just about had another heart attack that night -- we laugh about it now, but at the time it was very scary for her. Ken had not told her his problem because she was busy caring for their three children, and he did not want to scare them.)

Jason arrives and takes Ken to the Emergency Room at the Hospital, which fortunately is only five minutes away. They begin working on him, giving him some drugs to open up the clogged artery. Soon he is feeling somewhat better, trying to sit up and joking with the medical people. But, they life flight (sent him on a medical helicopter) to Ogden, a larger city about 40 miles away. There they have a Cath Lab where they immediately take him for tests to determine which artery is blocked.

Jason called me on the phone and explained all that was going on. I called my brother to take my Dad to the airport the next day. My father and I had a prayer together and I drove to Ogden, about a 80 mile drive from where I was. It was late at night, so the traffic was not bad. I had a very peaceful, calm feeling come over me. I felt the presence of my mother, who had died two months eariler, and had the strong feeling that everything was going to be OK. Jason, drove down from Logan and met me at the hospital in Ogden. It was about 2:00 am in the morning when we got there and we were the only ones in the waiting room outside the lab. The nurse, kept coming out and telling us what was happening and assured us that Ken was doing well. She gave us the computer picture of his heart showing the artery that was blocked and said that a special doctor was inserting a "stent" into that artery to open it up.

Here's more information about the procedure the doctors performed:

After the procedure was successfully completed, Jason and I were allowed to see Ken and he looked pretty good. There were lots of tubes, etc. going into him, but he was not experiencing any pain. We went with him to his room in the caratact intensive care area ... after getting settled into his bed, we talked with him for a while. Then he encouraged Jason to go home, as he had a presentation he needed to do at his work the next day. Jason left and I stayed with Ken through the rest of the night, sleeping in a chair in his room and we slept for a few hours.

The next day Ken had to stay still and flat most of the day. The "stent" was put into place using a catheter that was in a sheath that had been inserted into an artery in the groin. That sheath was not removed until late the next day -- that was the most painful part of his hospital stay. Ken felt good, was hungry and ate everything they brought him to eat. The medical people did LOTS of different tests that day, physical therists came and worked with him and we got a big binder full of nutrition information. Family members and friends called through out the day and a couple friends going through Ogden even stopped by to see him. That night he was even able to get up and go to the bathroom himself. He felt good but tried. After I got him already to sleep, I drove home (almost an hour drive) and slept well in my own bed.

The next morning, I returned to the hospital with some things that he wanted and we spent the day seeing different medical people and getting the results of all the tests. The Doctor told him that there was very little damage to his heart, because the medical people in Logan were able to open up the artery so quickly AND because he was in such over-all good health, living an active life-style. He was doing so well that the Doctor let me take him home that night.

He has to take several medications each day and the Doctor said told him to take it easy, but to do what he felt like doing ... but not to play "hoops" for a while. I brought him home on Tuesday night and by Friday that week he was on the golf course.

He did go to cartica rehab a couple of times and found that he knew several of the people there who had suffered different type of heart problems, one man had had eight heart by-passes! Max Peterson is one of the people he saw there. Max and his wife had taught English on the Shandong Medical University campus the 2004-2005 school year and lived in the same building that we did. After they returned from China, Max had a heart attack, when to the Logan Hospital, was flown to Ogden and had a stent put in there ... their stories were almost the same. It's interesting to note that the "life flight helicopter" often flies right over our house ... now when we see or hear it, we are reminded of Ken's experience.

Ken perferred getting his exercise doing the things he likes, such as golf, jogging and hoops. He has also done a lot of outside work around our house this summer. And he takes naps as he needs them. It has been my job to help him by providing "heart" healthy meals and he has lost some weight and wants to lose some more.

At the follow up visit with the Doctor in Ogden, we were told that the artery that was blocked affects 70% of the heart, so it could have caused major damage to his heart. Again we are so grateful for the "miralces" of modern medicine, that it happened when and where it did so he was able to get medical attention quickly AND we are especially grateful that Ken is doing so well and looking forward to many more wonderful years here on the earth.