Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/492943
Blocked arteries made Bill Roberts' heart a ticking time bomb. Time A Matter of The 76-year-old retired Texarkana lawyer has always been an avid exerciser. While working out at the CHRISTUS St. Michael Health & Fitness Center one autumn day in 2012, Bill experienced a slight burning feeling in his upper chest but shrugged it off. After several more episodes during the subsequent months, he couldn't ignore it any longer. Bill began his investigation of the symptom with a visit to his primary care physician's office in February 2013. Within days, he'd seen a cardiologist and had an echocardiogram and angiogram at CHRISTUS St. Michael. He never suspected what those diagnostic exams would uncover. "After the angiogram, my cardiologist [Dr. Brent Robinson] went to the waiting room and told my wife, Jerre, that he'd found several blockages in my coronary artery and that my heart was 'like a bomb waiting to go off,'" Bill says. "I needed to stay in the hospital and have open-heart surgery quickly. Jerre was shocked." NO NEED TO LEAVE TOWN The next morning, M. Bruce Cannon, M.D., cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon, performed quadruple coronary artery bypass graft surgery on Bill. After six weeks of outpatient cardiac rehabilitation at CHRISTUS St. Michael, he achieved his goal: returning to exercising on his own at the Health & Fitness Center. "I've seen people go to Dallas or Houston or Little Rock for open-heart surgery," Bill says. "Staying in Texarkana was easier on me and my family, and the care at CHRISTUS St. Michael couldn't have been any better. Leaving town is one stressor that didn't enter the picture, and because of that, I feel like my recovery got on track a lot faster." Have you been putting off seeing a cardiologist about a heart issue? To find one, visit christusstmichael.org and click "Find a Physician." Taking World-Class Care to Heart Bill Roberts If you're being treated for a heart problem, the aspects of care you don't see — the evidence- based protocols, safety measures, use of innovative techniques and physician-to-physician consultations — are critical to a successful result. At CHRISTUS St. Michael Health System, our patients can feel confident that a national leader in heart care supports those behind-the-scenes elements. In January 2014, CHRISTUS St. Michael became an affiliate of Cleveland Clinic's Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart & Vascular Institute, the number-one heart program in the United States for 20 consecutive years, according to U.S. News & World Report. The relationship allows CHRISTUS St. Michael to incorporate Cleveland Clinic policies and procedures and gives our physicians freedom to confer with their peers at the Ohio institution. In 2014, our specialists consulted Cleveland Clinic physicians on 33 complex patient cases. "As a patient, you might not know that your physician followed a protocol utilized at Cleveland Clinic or followed a recommendation from one of its physicians, but you reap the benefits," says Tom Bofferding, MSN, RN, cardiovascular services project manager at CHRISTUS St. Michael. "This affiliation makes the world-class care at Cleveland Clinic part of what we deliver every day." 3 LiveWell | Spring 2015