Patient Stories
James Rhand
On the morning of Friday, March 31, I woke up at home in my bed not realizing I was going to have a rendezvous with death. I felt tightness in my chest so I asked my wife, Shirley, to give me an aspirin and call the paramedics. Fortunately, they didn’t have far to come and were there in less than 10 minutes. The paramedics examined me and concluded I needed to be transported to the nearest hospital, Grandview Medical Center.
While in transport, I flatlined in the ambulance and was revived. When I arrived at the hospital, I was put in an emergency room and I flatlined a second time. They transferred me to the cath lab, where I flatlined a third and fourth time. After 25 days in CICU, I recovered and my rendezvous with death resulted in a walk with God through the valley of the shadow of death instead.
My recovery was nothing less than a miracle. I owe my recovery to the fervent prayers of my church family and friends as well as the excellent healthcare provided by the professionals at Grandview Medical Center. My wife, Shirley, was impressed with how determined the professionals at Grandview Medical Center were to saving my life and meeting my healthcare needs.
Kent Stewart
I was about 10 days into my climb of Mount Everest, and I thought I was having a heart attack. I just knew something wasn’t right. After being evacuated off the mountain, I was diagnosed with a three clogged arteries and sent to Grandview Medical Center for surgery.
I had been training for years for this climb and never knew I had any blockage. Luckily, we discovered it in time before anything more serious happened.
I like Dr. Casterline because he’s a runner and he understands the whole training aspect of what I was doing. We had a lot in common and he knew that I wanted to continue pursuing my climbing goals one day so I was really comfortable with him.
The care that I got at Grandview post-op was incredible. I can’t say enough about it. The entire floor was awesome. I was in recovery for 4-5 days, back at work 5 days later, and jogging 12 days later. It couldn’t have gone any better. I think the fact I had been training so hard prior to surgery helped my recovery go so smoothly.
It has been two years since the surgery. Honestly, I don’t even think about it anymore. I barely remember that it happened, and I thank the folks at Grandview Medical Center for that.
Kristina Bradley
I’m a cardiac nurse at Grandview Medical Center. I woke up one night with all the normal heart attack symptoms - chest pain, nausea, vomiting. Being a cardiac nurse, you go into denial, I’m only 38. But something in me said, "I have to go to the hospital."
All the tests looked okay except my EKG, and Dr. Bernal knew something else was going on and decided to do a cath to double check. It turned out I had a dissection in one my arteries, which means instead of being clogged, which is more common in heart attacks, the artery had started to tear apart. This is very rare and very serious. Dr. Bernal put in three stents and 30 minutes later I was having crushing chest pain again. The left main artery had completely torn and I was sent for emergency bypass surgery. Dr. Casterline, who is awesome, did four bypasses. I can’t imagine having heart surgery with anybody else. He’s incredible. He’s just good.
That night, Dr. Bernal diagnosed me with SCAD - spontaneous coronary artery dissection. Most people have never heard of it, and it’s referred to as the “young, healthy person’s disease,” because it seems to come out of nowhere. It mainly affects females under the age of 55 with no risk factors - they work out, eat healthy, etc. So it hit me by surprise. That still small voice that said, “Get to the hospital,” was what saved me.
I was in the ICU for 24 days. I had to relearn to walk and do basic things. Lying in bed for that long, your muscles just lose function. During recovery, it seemed everything that could go wrong did when it came to my body rejecting treatment. I really shouldn’t be here. There are some miracle workers here. We didn’t know I was allergic to a common blood thinner - I was. I had flash pulmonary edema. They had to re-intubate me. I was on dialysis around the clock.
But God can work miracles and it was amazing. The nephrologist said I was going to go home on dialysis and I said, “No I’m not. That’s not how I came in - that’s not how I’m going home.” And in three days everything turned around. It’s amazing how much you don’t know that you can endure, and then you do, and you come out so much stronger.
When I came home it was still hard to walk. Even getting up was a struggle. There’s a lot of depression that goes on: “Why did this happen to me? I’m doing everything right.” It was a lot of mental stuff. But you get through it. My hand is still numb in parts because of the blood thinner reaction. I couldn’t even pick up coins for the longest time, but just last week I discovered that I can now. I was so excited, telling all my coworkers. The little things now are exciting. And to see the milestones happen is incredible.
I was really lucky that Dr. Bernal was familiar with the disease. It saved my life.