CardioScan: Wife’s Demand Saves Husband’s Life

Just before his 60th birthday, Joe VonHolt was lunching with his wife, Bev, when he had a bout of what he thought was indigestion. The retired mechanic had suffered from acid reflux for 20 years, but the pain in his chest was getting worse. It used to occur only when he exerted himself. Now it was nearly constant. The two prescriptions and nearly 30 antacids he took daily weren’t helping.

Bev said it was like God spoke to her and told her to send Joe for a CardioScan immediately.

“Indigestion and heart disease can mask one another,” said Bev, a human resources assistant at Saint Luke’s Cardiovascular Consultants. “I told him, ‘We’re getting you set up for a CardioScan today.’” And she did.

The nurse who gave Joe the results told him two arteries coming out of his heart were blocked almost completely with plaque.

During a nuclear stress test to confirm the findings, Joe passed out.

“He’s in danger mode,” said Barry D. Rutherford, MD, a cardiologist with Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute, who read the results. With arteries that were 85 and 95 percent blocked, Joe could suffer a heart attack at any moment. Dr. Rutherford scheduled him for angioplasty and ordered him not to do anything more strenuous than watch his dog sleep.

Dr. Rutherford inserted two stents on a Friday afternoon and said that Joe should be able to go home the next morning.

Problem solved, thought Joe.

Pain like no other

At 1:30 a.m., Joe felt the worst pain of his life. It was like someone had stuck a knife in his back and kept twisting it. The pain was constant. Even morphine couldn’t control it.

“I laid in a fetal position and moaned and groaned,” Joe recalled.

A team of doctors at Saint Luke’s Hospital put their heads together. An ultrasound, MRI, and CT scan revealed no problems with his stents or his heart. A gastroenterologist looked down Joe’s esophagus for problems. Next came a hepatobiliary or HIDA scan with a radioactive tracer to see if there might be a problem with his liver or gallbladder.

“Do you still have your gallbladder?” said the technician who performed the test.

“Yes.”

“Are you sure?”

Joe’s gallbladder had ceased to function. Fluid had swollen the organ that is supposed to be the size of a golf ball into the size of a grapefruit. It was at risk for rupturing at any moment. This would make the surgery way more complicated and could possibly cause a heart attack, according to Dr. Rutherford.

Four days after getting stents, Joe underwent emergency gallbladder surgery.

“The blessing was that health professionals who could detect and take care of multiple problems were all on hand,” said Joe, who was able to stay at the Heart Institute for all his tests and treatment.

Scan can

Joe spent 9 days instead of one in the hospital, but it was worth it. The pain and burning in his chest disappeared. So did the stabbing back pain, and the indigestion.

Since then, Bev has been encouraging all her friends and family to get CardioScans. “Why wouldn’t you spend $50 to get a chance to ward off a catastrophic heart attack?” she said.

And Joe can now attest to the importance of listening to his wife.

“My wife listens to God,” Joe said. “Now, I listen to her.”