LIFE-FLIGHTED Boone’s team effort saves Zach’s life and stabilizes him for transport!
Z
ach Traylor sits across from the doctor who saved his life. The last time Zach was in front of Michael Brown, MD, MS of Missouri Heart Center, Zach was in a Pheo Crisis – a rare, life-threatening endocrine emergency. But how did a seemingly healthy 24-year-old get to this point? Zach was enjoying life. He was in his second year of PhD school at the University of Missouri. He loved to read, loved to cook, loved to try new recipes and especially loved to do science and his research. In June 2022, Zach started waking up to a pounding heart – not pounding fast, just pounding hard. “It was a little concerning at first,” Zach says, “but eventually, things would get occasionally worse and that beating would go to my brain and my stomach and it would be agonizing pain.” Zach went to his general practitioner who referred him to an electrophysiology expert in the cardiology department. He did a full echocardiogram, was put on a heart monitor for a month and nothing was found to be wrong with the functioning of Zach’s heart. With nothing to diagnose, Zach was advised to stay healthy and to come back if it got much worse.
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BOONE HEALTH
Fall 2023
