CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — This past November, for the first time, I missed a high school football Friday night.
Many asked, why. Few knew because I returned to work a week later. I returned, forever changed. A heart attack survivor. This month is an apropos time to tell my story.
I’ll be frank and truthful. I’m 41 years old. I could afford to lose a few pounds, but I’m in good health overall. I have a great wife and two loving kids (11 and 7). I’m super active, have always enjoyed my job, and don’t consider myself overly stressed.
“Yeah, this is why you do this,” said Zach Robbins, a nurse practitioner at Newton Family Medicin. “To say ‘does it happen all the time?’ Your story does not happen all the time.”
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I’ve walked into West Ashley’s Newton Family Medicine a million times, and I’ve been a patient since I started at News 4 18 years ago. November was my first time meeting Zach, and I’m sure glad I did.
“Stunned given age and health,” Robbins said. “Totally stunned. Even more stunned when we got the score back.”
It started at a Stingrays game with my daughter Erin. Out of breath, chest tightening walking to my seat. How? Why? It happened again outside. A quick text led to a next-day visit that would change and save my life.
“EKG was normal, Bloodwork was normal. Nothing screaming at us that it was heart-related except for increasing chest tightness during exercise,” Robbins said. “That, combined with family history and high cholesterol – enough risk factors there of, ‘hey, let’s get this coronary artery calcium score.'”
I was never good at scoring high on tests. My numbers on this calcium CT scan, a painless 5-minute procedure were through the roof. That isn’t a good thing.
“100- 400 we’re at moderate risk for cardiovascular events such as heart attack,” Robbins said. “400 above you are at much much higher risk for a cardiovascular event. You being 1800 was extremely shocking in an otherwise healthy individual.”
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I met with Zach and Dr. Marshall Newton at 8 a.m. the next day. By noon, I was at Roper Hospital to meet with Dr. Troy Bunting, the cardiologist who would treat me that day.
“With elevated calcium score and strong family history and the new onset symptoms, it was very concerning that this could be an unstable process developing,” said Bunting. “There might be an early heart attack developing. We rapidly triaged you to the heart catheterization lab, which is the gold standard for diagnosing a blockage.
“Traditionally, now we go in through the wrist, the radial artery. They were able to facilitate a pretty rapid heart catheterization where we found a tight blockage in the proximal left anterior descending artery, which is also known as the widow maker.”
In regular terms, I was a ticking time bomb.
“We ran a little catheter to the heart, injected contrast – a medium we can see the blood flow into heart arteries under a camera,” Robbins said. “We see blood flow into heart muscle accurately. Through that same catheter – if there is a blockage – we can clean it out. In your case, we saw a blockage in the LAD artery that was very very severe.
“We were able to open it up and put in a stent. It should last you for life.”
I don’t love doing a story on myself, but if one person sees this and decides to go to a doctor when they are on the fence, I’m happy.
“We want to prevent catastrophic events from happening. Thankfully you listened to your body. I was able to listen to you.” says Robbins.
I surely appreciate your concern and care.
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