Bob's Story Video Transcript
It never really struck me when I was going through it that it could be fatal.
We are married 50 years and about 2 years ago he began having heart problems. He had two stents put in and then I noticed her breathing was labored.
When I met Mr. McCoy it was probably November. He was already experiencing symptoms of congestive heart failure.
You know you hear all these stories about what happens if you have a heart attack. How your arm’s going to hurt and the different symptoms. To tell you the truth, before I had this I had some of these symptoms.
One night I saw him breathing and I said “Lord, I’m losing him.”
We met Dr. John Miller and he was, first of all, he talked to me and to Bob, not just Bob. I was part of the care too. He explained the procedure and what would be done. What our options would be and if we didn’t choose the surgery – wherever it would be – that he would have only tow years to live.
It was unquestionable what he needed to have done. His aorta valve needed to be replaced.
Dr. Miller was working at the Atrium. I particularly liked that because the Atrium was close to home and Pam wouldn’t have to be travelling all over the country to see me and get to where I was. We’ve been pretty much joined at the hip for a long time.
The advantages of a place like this – a small community hospital where a patient comes and feels like they’re being taken care of by people in their family – is enormous. If you can marry that with the high tech and top-line outcomes and technologies from the big box, that’s the perfect line up; the perfect set up.
When I came on the day of surgery, I had a peace about it because they informed me before I went in as to what to expect. There was a wonderful lady, Candace Kitchen.
One of the things we want to do is involve the families and keep the families informed and help them be prepared for what they are going to see once they see the patient coming out of surgery. That involves informing them throughout the case, having close contact with the OR and being able to let the families know and explain to them in time frames what is happening during that phase of the surgery.
When I saw him the first time, he had all these tubes coming out of him. But because Candace had prepared me during surgery as to what to expect and what to see, I went in and knew he’d have all these tubes coming out of him.
A lot of what goes on with patients as far as fear and anxiety is related to the unknown so if we can let them know and give them information, the fear is alleviated in some sense because it’s no longer and unknown.
Operation went well. He did very well. Was out of the hospital in a timely fashion and then recouped, recovered and was back in cardiac rehab phase I.
Bob has stuck with cardiac rehab. He came into Phase 2 and he graduated from Phase 2 and continued into Phase 3. He’s very compliant and comes in twice a week. He’s doing great.
The rehab at the hospital, the cardiac rehab can’t be topped. Atrium has a great team in their rehab.
Doctors from the Cincinnati area love our cardiac rehab so well that they will send them here as opposed to their affiliated cardiac rehab.
Had it not been for Dr. Brown and his monitoring and he’s affiliated with the Atrium, his follow ups and my nagging, I wouldn’t have him here today. I’m your spokesperson for this hospital. We’re blessed to have it and I just wish the community would know that and realize that more.
<< Back to video