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Barney woke up on July 1, 2002 and started getting ready for work like any other day. He was looking forward to the long Fourth of July holiday weekend with his family.
Then, while showering, he started to feel pains in his chest he had never felt before. It was in the center of his chest, not excruciating, but different.
“I had never had that feeling before, and I told my wife Rita this really just doesn’t seem right. I think we need to go to urgent care; so we decided we better just go and get it checked out,” said Barney.
They went to MercyOne Ankeny Urgent Care where the team quickly got him to a room to be evaluated.
“First thing is they hook you up the EKG to see what’s going on. And the nurse said, ‘Yes, there's some activity happening here.’”
Barney’s pain had shot up to a 10 at this point. He was feeling severe chest pains causing him to bend over while profusely sweating.
“At that point they gave him a nitroglycerin pill. The doctor said, ‘We’re going to find out real soon with this pill how he feels and what the next step is,’” said Rita. Within about a minute of taking the nitro pill his pain went down to a six. “That’s when they knew for sure it was his heart,” she said.
Immediately, an ambulance was called and Barney was transported to MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center.
“He went into the cardiac catheterization lab and I waited in the waiting room,” said Rita. “I knew the procedure might take an hour to an hour and half and it probably wasn't but 10 minutes later, the cath lab director came out and let us know before they were able to start the angiogram that his heart had stopped.”
Barney’s heart had stopped for 17 minutes. The experts at MercyOne performed CPR and shocked his heart several times with a defibrillator. He quickly was attached to the ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) machine to help support his heart and lungs and let them rest.
“A lot of really quick decisions were made,” said Rita. “Ten to fifteen minutes later, the director came in again and let us know that they were able to get his heart started.”
MercyOne Iowa Heart Center interventional cardiologists were able to perform the angiogram after letting his heart and body recover.
“It was a 100% blockage in the LAD, which they call the widow maker,” said Barney.
MercyOne Iowa Heart Center experts cleared the artery and placed a stent to keep the artery open and allow the blood to flow through.
“The care we received at MercyOne from all of the doctors and nurses has meant so much to us,” said Rita. “Our entire family is so thankful that we were at MercyOne where they had the correct equipment and ECPR (extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation) to meet the needs of what Barney needed that day.”
Once discharged, Barney attended cardiac rehab to help improve his cardiovascular health.
“The MercyOne Iowa Heart Center doctors, nurses, everybody was incredibly great,” said Barney. “They saved my life. I tell my friends if you are having any heart issues, please go to MercyOne. They literally saved my life!”
