Rick's Heart Care Story
View
Hide
Transcript
Well, actually, I think on our third date, we decided we're gonna get married through thick and thin, better or worse, sicker or poor, sometimes more sicker.
We have four grandchildren.
We had we had four sons, but, our fourth son was a resident physician.
We went on vacation with him in January of twenty three.
And, when he went back to residency, we could hear it in his voice that he was not doing well. [Rick and Debbie's son died by suicide on February 12, 2023]
And, so that's very traumatic.
It's hard on all of us. Heart disease and, mental health are epidemics.
What's very special about Brian Toole Racing is that we have a family culture and it's very important and people legitimately care about each other.
They call me the flying mustache because I move so fast. As much as I love my work, I I confess that I take it too seriously sometimes. I was at an off-site meeting. At the end of the meeting, I got pictures of these parts that we were, you know, hotshotting from Iowa and they're full of holes.
And I saw these pictures and it same thing. Boom. Right in the stomach. I'm like, oh.
[Two prior heart attacks in the early 2000s were both preceded by severe stomach pain. Rick knew what was happening.]
Rick had had a stent placed years ago and when he came into the hospital with chest pain, the stent had closed off.
And the first thing the cardiologist did was open up the stent to the RCA, the right coronary artery. And when he did that, he fibrillated, got him back, and then found out he had, triple vessel disease. All three main arteries had blockages. So then he was referred to me for surgery.
We Googled best heart surgeon in Louisville and doctor Pollock came up.
Our oldest son, Ricky, we call him Ricky.
Yeah. Richard the third.
Internal medicine doc. He he was we did FaceTime with doctor Pollock in the office, and Ricky was able to ask questions, and that gave Ricky peace of mind.
Doctor Pollock to his credit was very not defensive at all and answered every question to everyone's satisfaction and it was just such a pleasure to work with and it just gave us great confidence.
It's important for the patient to have choice. We were happy that he chose us to do surgery. What we did was remove veins from the legs and use an artery that runs in the chest wall, the internal thoracic artery to do four bypasses and this is done with the heart lung machine.
And because of his history of atrial fibrillation, we also isolated his left atrial appendage. That reduces the risk of strokes later on if he has any episodes of atrial fibrillation. Function after the surgery with the four bypasses was pretty normal.
I was walking in ICU, I think around twelve hours or less after surgery. And, I I really couldn't believe how pain free the whole experience was.
One thing I wanna stress is how amazing when I say staff, I mean all of the staff Yeah. At Baptist, they helped us through this Yeah.
Because we were scared. Yeah. We were very frightened.
I went to cardiac rehab, and it was a great experience.
We know that physically rehab helps, and that's monitored exercise. And it also improves function of the heart and it helps with the bypasses too. It's important to really modify the risk factors that we can. There are genetic factors that we can't modify, but we can modify cholesterol. We can stop smoking, we can work on diabetes and we can work on diet. And I think the results long term from bypass surgery are much better now than they were twenty years ago because of the things we can modify.
I have living proof that you could get world class health care, a world class cardiac thoracic surgery from Baptist Health, and I can't imagine any better care. I mean, I can't imagine how it could go any better.
Well, and I think that Baptist Health doesn't just concentrate on the surgical aspect of all this, it's the spiritual aspect too.
It really makes you take stock of your life and your priorities.
I I probably am a bit obsessed about my work, and I need to focus a little more on my little more on my wife and my family.
For the patient, you know, you're focused on yourself and, and then there's putting stress on other people around you.
That's what love's about.
Yeah. I appreciate it. I love you. I love you too.
[If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat at 988lifeline dot org]
We have four grandchildren.
We had we had four sons, but, our fourth son was a resident physician.
We went on vacation with him in January of twenty three.
And, when he went back to residency, we could hear it in his voice that he was not doing well. [Rick and Debbie's son died by suicide on February 12, 2023]
And, so that's very traumatic.
It's hard on all of us. Heart disease and, mental health are epidemics.
What's very special about Brian Toole Racing is that we have a family culture and it's very important and people legitimately care about each other.
They call me the flying mustache because I move so fast. As much as I love my work, I I confess that I take it too seriously sometimes. I was at an off-site meeting. At the end of the meeting, I got pictures of these parts that we were, you know, hotshotting from Iowa and they're full of holes.
And I saw these pictures and it same thing. Boom. Right in the stomach. I'm like, oh.
[Two prior heart attacks in the early 2000s were both preceded by severe stomach pain. Rick knew what was happening.]
Rick had had a stent placed years ago and when he came into the hospital with chest pain, the stent had closed off.
And the first thing the cardiologist did was open up the stent to the RCA, the right coronary artery. And when he did that, he fibrillated, got him back, and then found out he had, triple vessel disease. All three main arteries had blockages. So then he was referred to me for surgery.
We Googled best heart surgeon in Louisville and doctor Pollock came up.
Our oldest son, Ricky, we call him Ricky.
Yeah. Richard the third.
Internal medicine doc. He he was we did FaceTime with doctor Pollock in the office, and Ricky was able to ask questions, and that gave Ricky peace of mind.
Doctor Pollock to his credit was very not defensive at all and answered every question to everyone's satisfaction and it was just such a pleasure to work with and it just gave us great confidence.
It's important for the patient to have choice. We were happy that he chose us to do surgery. What we did was remove veins from the legs and use an artery that runs in the chest wall, the internal thoracic artery to do four bypasses and this is done with the heart lung machine.
And because of his history of atrial fibrillation, we also isolated his left atrial appendage. That reduces the risk of strokes later on if he has any episodes of atrial fibrillation. Function after the surgery with the four bypasses was pretty normal.
I was walking in ICU, I think around twelve hours or less after surgery. And, I I really couldn't believe how pain free the whole experience was.
One thing I wanna stress is how amazing when I say staff, I mean all of the staff Yeah. At Baptist, they helped us through this Yeah.
Because we were scared. Yeah. We were very frightened.
I went to cardiac rehab, and it was a great experience.
We know that physically rehab helps, and that's monitored exercise. And it also improves function of the heart and it helps with the bypasses too. It's important to really modify the risk factors that we can. There are genetic factors that we can't modify, but we can modify cholesterol. We can stop smoking, we can work on diabetes and we can work on diet. And I think the results long term from bypass surgery are much better now than they were twenty years ago because of the things we can modify.
I have living proof that you could get world class health care, a world class cardiac thoracic surgery from Baptist Health, and I can't imagine any better care. I mean, I can't imagine how it could go any better.
Well, and I think that Baptist Health doesn't just concentrate on the surgical aspect of all this, it's the spiritual aspect too.
It really makes you take stock of your life and your priorities.
I I probably am a bit obsessed about my work, and I need to focus a little more on my little more on my wife and my family.
For the patient, you know, you're focused on yourself and, and then there's putting stress on other people around you.
That's what love's about.
Yeah. I appreciate it. I love you. I love you too.
[If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat at 988lifeline dot org]