OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — February is American Heart Month and local doctors want to remind you to love your heart now, more than ever.
One woman who exemplifies the importance of that message is Des Moines resident Patrice Howard. The 69-year-old knew something was very wrong in Oct. 2021. When she couldn't catch her breath or sit up she called an ambulance.
"They told us like it's her heart. She's gonna need to have surgery right away and then we knew it was severe. They told us this was bad. This is very, very bad," her daughter Carly Burton said.
Burton also discovered her mother was clinically diagnosed with Marfan Syndrome - a genetic condition impacting connective tissue.
"She's very tall, slender. We had no idea what that was. What it meant. This makes it even more dangerous. It's life-threatening," Burton said.
From there on, it was a desperate race against time to get Patrice care. Calling hospitals in places like Chicago, Minnesota and Iowa for more than three hours.
"There was a lady that was supposed to be off-hours and she stayed just to... call. They were like, 'We'll do whatever we have to do.' My mom was saying, 'You know, I'm going to lay here and die before someone takes me.' And they kept saying, 'No, no, we're not gonna let that happen,'" Burton said.
Help came in the form of Dr. HelenMari Merritt-Genore, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Methodist Physicians Clinic.
"We were number 11 that they called. And over time, I actually learned by speaking with their cardiologist that they had calls out to 33 different hospitals," Merritt-Genore said.
Patrice suffered an aortic dissection. It's a fairly rare event that is fatal without intervention.
"By getting her here, and getting her immediately to the operating room, I would say she was probably within hours of death," Merritt-Genore said.
There was a four-week period of recovery in the hospital. Patrice later went to an acute rehab care in Des Moines. Getting released right before Thanksgiving. When she returned to the clinic, Patrice got to meet her "angel" in scrubs — the big-hearted heart surgeon.
"Hearing her voice for the first time because I've never heard her voice and really seeing her for who she was, not in the middle of a crisis, it was a great moment for all of us in the room," Merritt-Genore said.
"We told her a few times we weren't ready for her to go yet. We appreciate the time she gave us more time," Burton said.
Carly also lost her stepmother to the exact same condition. Merritt-Genore says remembering things we can control like diet, exercise and consumption of alcohol is very important to staying healthy.
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