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From the Cardiologist's Wife: Todd's Testimonial
Jan 15, 2014

Sixteen years ago, Todd Petit was sitting at home reading the newspaper. Suddenly he began to experience sharp pain in his jaw, neck and chest, the classic symptoms of a heart attack. He called his wife, a cardiac nurse, who was at work. She told him to wait a few minutes and call back if it didn’t go away. Within a couple of minutes, the pain was so bad he couldn’t breathe. Calling his wife back, he was able to gasp, “I’m having a heart attack!”. When his wife found him, he was passed out in the bathroom. Todd was only 33.

Todd doesn’t remember much of the next few hours. His wife was able to get him into the car and she raced him to St. Bernard's. Along the way, she called my husband who met them in the ER. In the ER, Todd actually coded three times and three times, Dr. Tedder shocked him back to life. When he was stabilized, Dr. Tedder took him to the cath lab where he performed angioplasty to open the blockages.

Todd’s case is a bit unusual in that 33 year old people normally don’t have heart attacks. But the warning signs were all there and no one paid attention to them. His father had died of a heart attack at age 57. Todd was already on blood pressure and cholesterol medicine by age 27. That’s four risk factors for heart disease (being male, family history, high blood pressure and high cholesterol); however, he was active and not overweight. Todd didn’t worry about a thing.

After his heart attack, Todd became my husband’s star patient. He started exercising daily, gave up red meat, kept his blood pressure and cholesterol under control with medicine and watched what he ate. He did very well for several years but then he injured his knee and after a major surgical repair, stopped exercising. He began to gain weight and didn’t feel as good as he had.

A check up with Dr. Tedder revealed that his blood pressure and cholesterol was rising again. Dr. Tedder was upset that Todd had gained so much weight and was putting himself at risk for another heart attack. He asked Todd, “Do you want to be around to see your daughter grow up?” Because his doctor held him accountable for his own health, Todd left his office and went straight to the Health and Wellness Center. Since July, he has lost 20 pounds and has been exercising regularly again. He has also given up sodas and sticks to unsweetened tea. Todd admits that he might “fall off the wagon” again. As he says about good health, “It is a process.”

My husband says that Todd has an inherited high cholesterol problem that led to his premature heart disease. It is critical for someone in this position to make life style changes to combat the disease process. A healthy diet and exercise are key to maintaining good health, especially for someone who already has problems.

-Lisa

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