Health & Wellness
Matters of the Heart
Cardiac Care on the Northshore by Karen B. Gibbs
The Slidell Memorial Hospital Heart Center has comprehensive cardiac care to screen, identify and treat coronary, heart and vascular diseases. Featuring two catheterization labs and a hybrid cath lab/OR, cardiac procedures include: angiogram, balloon angioplasty, coronary artery bypass graft, valve replacement,
“I WAS A TICKING TIME BOMB,” says Slidell Mayor Greg Cromer. “I had no symptoms except shortness of Impella®, the world’s breath while working in the yard, but I just attributed smallest heart pump, it to getting older.” is available to support Cromer’s good friend, Dr. Vasnath Bethala, head high-risk patients of cardiology at Slidell Memorial Hospital, had been during heart surgeries “urging” Cromer to get a baseline cardio work-up. and procedures. Finally, Cromer relented. “I was supposed to get a stress test on September 1, but Ida threw a kink in that plan. In no hurry, I put it off until September 30.” Cromer’s stress test revealed something Dr. Bethala didn’t like, so he recommended Cromer get an angiogram. “I put that off for a week until my wife got back in town,” he says, obviously not worried about the outcome. Slidell Mayor Greg Cromer. But he should have been. stents, pacemakers
photo courtesy: SLIDELL MAYOR’S OFFICE
and electrophysiology.
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Inside Northside
The angiogram revealed that Cromer had nine blockages— one was 99 percent, two were 90 percent, one was 70 percent and the rest were between 40-50 percent blocked. He needed surgery immediately. Fortunately, Dr. Gregory Eckholdt, a cardiothoracic surgeon, had done several cases that morning and was still at the hospital. Dr. Bethala told him he had a case that needed to be done immediately, and Dr. Eckholdt agreed to do it. “I went from the cath lab to the OR,” says Cromer. “I’d gone for the angiogram around 7:30 in the morning on Thursday. The surgery was done around 11 a.m. I woke up at 12:05 Friday morning in an ICU room, not knowing where I was or what was going on. I had tubes everywhere. Drew TK, my nurse in ICU, sprang into action. He hovered over me, rubbing both my arms to calm me down. He told me to relax and let me know what was going on. I went back to sleep.” At the time he related this story, Cromer was just five weeks post-surgery and was feeling fine. He had nothing but praise for SMH. “My advice is this. If you need cardiac care, there’s no reason to go anywhere but the hospitals we have on the northshore. The care was first class—from the doctors, nurses, attendants, pulmonary and dietary staff—everyone provided firstrate care. They saved my life.”
Be Proactive Mayor Cromer’s story has a happy ending because he listened—albeit grudgingly—to his friend, Dr. Bethala,
