Bringing Hearts Home gala pulses a personal beat for Herald editor

By Lethbridge Herald on February 5, 2025.

Scott Sakatch – Lethbridge Herald Editor

The tremendous success of the Bringing Hearts Home gala last weekend was heartening to see, and not just because it showcased the amazing generosity of southern Albertans. I doubt there’s anyone reading this right now who hasn’t been touched in some way by the scourge of heart disease, whether personally or through a relative or friend. I’m no exception: a dear friend of mine suffered a heart attack just last year, my brother has dealt with atrial fibrillation in recent years and my father-in-law passed away from complications of heart failure eight years ago this month.

And I now find myself on the list of people who are directly affected after a week-long stay in Chinook Regional Hospital in mid-January.

Before that, I had often heard heart disease referred to as the “silent killer.” But I never expected to be the poster boy for the concept myself until I walked into Dr. Sayeh Zielke’s clinic, Chinook Cardiology, on Jan. 16. I’d been referred by a local nurse practitioner when she discovered my blood pressure was extremely high (which was normal for me). She also sent me for a heart ultrasound, which I assumed would be the subject of my clinic appointment. I assumed that, since I felt perfectly fine, I would come away with a new prescription that would help bring down my BP.

So imagine my shock when the doctor basically told me to get my butt to the emergency room immediately because I was going to be admitted.

I just blinked at him for a few seconds, thinking he must have had me mixed up with someone else. I was good – no chest pain, no weakness or fatigue. I’m only 56 and I’m not overweight, I don’t smoke and my diet is reasonably healthy. In short, I had no symptoms at all.

That was when he told me my ultrasound showed that I suffered from a damaged aortic valve, which resulted in the disgusting-sounding condition called “aortic regurgitation.” That, couple with my blood pressure, essentially made me a ticking time bomb. Again, I didn’t believe what he was saying. He was obviously mistaken – I had to get back to work immediately. I had a cruise planned in just a few short weeks. I feel fine. I don’t belong in hospital.

Fast forward a few hours and I was in a bed in Unit 4C with nurses checking my vitals every hour or so. One of the residents stopped by and confirmed that I was, indeed, a ticking time bomb and that I would be in the hospital at least a week for scans and tests. After that, it was likely that I would end up in an ambulance  to Calgary for an angiogram and possibly even surgery on my pooched aortic valve. Less than 12 hours earlier I had started my day just like I normally did, and now here I was in a hospital gown with a pic line in one arm and a band with a QR code on my wrist.

Long story short (too late, I know), a pair of follow-up scans showed that my aortic valve wasn’t as bad as the initial ultrasound had indicated and my situation wasn’t as urgent. That didn’t explain my blood pressure, though, so several days weren’t spent trying to figure out what was causing it. Through trial and error, my resident docs confirmed that I had a hormonal imbalance. Once I was put on the right meds, my BP dropped like a stone. They also helped me straighten out my diabetes medication and get better control of my blood sugar. The whole time, I continued to feel fine (aside from a truly egregious lack of sleep, as anyone every admitted to hospital will attest).

But I was far from fine, and I finally wised up to that fact around my fourth day on 4C. That was when the significance of the “silent killer” moniker really struck home. How many people “felt fine” until minutes before their heart attack? How many people don’t bother to worry about blood pressure because they “felt fine”?

When I was first admitted to hospital, I confess I was ready to spit nails. These docs had it all wrong, I had work to do, I had a life I needed to get back to, this was all a big mistake. But over the course of the week, I slowly learned a very deep lesson about humility and fragility, and came to the stark realization that I’m nowhere near as healthy as I believed I was.

In short, it was a hard pill to swallow, but I finally did. And in the end, I came away from the experience with a new appreciation for a lot of things in my life that I’d taken for granted. I’ll likely have regular appointments with a cardiologist for the rest of my life. I really, really hope that those appointments will be here in Lethbridge, and that the city becomes a hub for cardiac care.

So while I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Zielke yet, I want to thank her for everything she’s doing for me and thousands of others in southern Alberta.

Oh, and one more thing: when a doctor tells you to get your butt to the hospital, don’t argue. Just do it.