Aaron

When Aaron Roberts was 37 years old he suffered an aortic dissection while on a business trip to Chicago. He found out after the fact that a bicuspid aortic valve was possibly the cause; however, the valve was damaged during the dissection and it was never confirmed.

Here is how Aaron describes his ordeal.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007.

I arrived in Chicago for a series of meetings. The first meeting and lunch went excellently. I navigated out to the suburbs to get set up in my hotel. I normally stay near Midway or O’Hare, but could not get a room either place and ended up in the western suburbs near Hinsdale.

I had trouble getting my hotel internet connection to work and worked with several folks overseas trying to get it to work. I eventually went to a nearby Barnes & Noble to update my email.

I returned to my room and set down on the bed to watch TV. But, when I got up off the bed, I felt a pain in my chest that felt almost like a muscle tear. I felt dizzy and light headed. Then I tried to walk over to the phone and collapsed between the wall and the TV stand / dresser. I just happened to look at the nearby clock and saw that it was about 9:30 PM. I woke up about 10 PM and was able to make it the short distance back to my bed. Fortunately, I was able to call my wife via my mobile phone. (I have always had her number programmed in the 5 speed dial position because the 5 key has always had a little bump on it, so I could call in the dark or on the road. It just made it easier it.)

When I called my wife, I told her that I had fainted and I wasn’t sure if I had had a heart attack. I asked her to look up my symptoms on the internet to see if we should call 911.

She immediately looked and told me I should call 911, I mentioned to her that I could not figure out how to dial 911. That sent a signal to her that maybe something was really wrong. She hung up with me, called the hotel and had them call 911.

In the meantime, I was able to call 911 from my cell phone, but they could not figure out where I was and went to the wrong place. The EMTs my wife had called arrived in minutes. I had my door open and was on the bed.

I explained the chest pain, but I also was beginning to feel better and was almost embarrassed that I had bothered them. I was very pale and sweating profusely so they told me that they were going to take me to Hinsdale Hospital.

I don’t really remember much except they kept asking me about drugs and I kept telling them I had a Target Pizza Hut pizza and garlic chips.  Per the medical reports I continued to be very talkative in the ER. I had low blood pressure and a normal EKG. The medical staff told me that I kept asking them to help me and kept telling them that they weren’t helping.

I’m not completely clear on all the events that follow, but have attempted to put together everyone’s stories in the correct order.

At some point, the paramedics and the medical staff called my wife trying to get medical history.  In the ER or the CT lab I crashed and had to be resuscitated. The ER doctor also drew the blood from the sac around my heart to keep me alive.  Because of the pressure from the internal bleeding, the medical staff had a very difficult time intubating me.  In fact, almost everyone mentioned how a special procedure on the third attempt saved my life just to get me to surgery.

The CT scan confirmed that I had an aortic dissection. The prepped me for emergency open heart surgery.

The medical team again called my wife to give her an update on my condition and to get more medical history and consent.  They told her to get to Chicago as fast as she could because I had only a 50/50 chance of survival.  One of the ER intake coordinators helped my wife book a flight to Chicago for 6 AM the next morning.

While all of this was going on, my wife called her family in New Mexico to pray. Eventually, as things progressed, two of her sisters made arrangements to come to Dallas to stay with our kids.

One of my wife’s friends came over to help her get packed and stay with the Kids until their Aunts could arrive. My wife also called my mother and my mom decided to go to Chicago too. She drove the 80 miles from where she lives to be here in time for the early morning flight to Chicago. Another friend took my wife and mom to the airport.

I went into surgery after midnight. It just so happens that two very prominent surgeons were on call that night. I was told that I could not have scheduled better surgeons; in fact, if they had not both been on call together I probably could not have scheduled them together at all. But, everyone says how great they both are and how good it would be to get just one of them.

There were a couple of complications with my surgery, but they were overcome. The doctor in charge of the cardiac unit at Hinsdale Hospital came out and met my wife in the morning afterwards and explained to her how great the team I had was, how well they all worked together. He said it was like watching a pit crew at the Indy 500, fast, efficient and beautiful.

They explained I was still not out of the woods; the next 24-48 hours would be critical. But, at least I had survived surgery and it had gone about as well as it possibly could have. I now had a new aorta and a mechanical heart valve.

The cardiac program at Hinsdale has an excellent reputation. I could not have been in better hands. I was admitted Tuesday night (9/11) and was discharged to a local hotel in time for Monday Night Football. I returned to Texas the following Saturday and have been seeing doctors and recovering since.