Patient Stories: Heart

Heart & Vascular Institute-Memorial City

Melvin
In a heartbeat: Surgery, rehab helped put me on the road to recovery
   

In February 2002, I went to Memorial Hermann Memorial City because I thought I might be having a heart attack. The next day, as I did the treadmill stress test while they monitored my heart, everything seemed fine. I thought I would be going home any minute.

Then it happened – I flatlined. No heartbeat.
   

The whole team came running in. Later, the doctor said he quit counting how many times they shocked my heart after 10. It wasn’t much fun.

They did an angiogram and put me on a balloon heart pump for three days to help my heart do what it was supposed to. Then Dr. Miguel Gomez did the surgery – five bypasses in all – and five days later Dr. Alexander Drtil implanted a pacemaker.
   

Those folks could not have treated me better. All of them were just angels. The people who work at the cardiac rehabilitation center are angels too. They’ve kept me alive.

I’ve been going to cardiac rehab three times a week since I was discharged, and it's the best thing a person can do after a heart problem. They check our EKG and blood pressure before and during exercise. We stretch and then use the treadmill, and while we cool down we learn about cholesterol, stroke symptoms or something else educational. It’s just great.

I’ve been so blessed. My wife, Jackie, and I try to pay back our good fortune by volunteering every week with the Mended Hearts support group at the hospital. We visit heart patients and offer support, answer questions – anything we can do to help them.

Today I can do everything I want to do, and for that I thank the healthcare staff at Memorial Hermann Memorial City. They are such caring people.