A higher level of care
I
t is Terry Chick’s job to cover
the news, not be the news. But
that changed in August when
Terry, who anchors the evening
newscasts on CBS-affiliate KEPR-
TV, had a quintuple (five) bypass at
Kadlec Regional Medical Center.
Terry, 59, knew he had a family
history of heart disease. His father and
his uncle both died of heart disease when
they were 62. Despite
this history, he said,
“I was a couch potato
and had been for
30 years. My family
history had always
been in the back of my
mind, but I had not
had a physical in
40 years, since I was in high school.”
This summer, Terry was out mowing
his lawn when he experienced chest pain.
He stopped mowing and it went away;
he went back to cutting the grass.The
next week, within 10 minutes of starting
to mow his lawn, he got chest pain again
and in addition his left arm also went
numb.This time, it got his attention.
“I may not have been a good patient
in the past, but I am not stupid,” he said.
“I went to see a doctor.”
He was then referred to cardiologist
Randall Farrar, MD.“When he heard
my story and my family history,
he immediately scheduled a heart
catheterization. During the
cath, they found two arteries
blocked and two at 80 percent
blocked. Dr. Farrar told me
the bad news was that I had
multiple blockages, but the good
news was I needed surgery,” said
Terry with a chuckle. He then
met with Kadlec cardiothoracic
surgeon Juan Cordero, Jr., MD.
“He was very
straightforward
about the surgery and the
recovery,” saidTerry.“He told
me the good news was I did
not have a heart attack and I
had an extremely strong heart.
He went on to say,‘This is
what we are going to do.’”
According to Dr. Cordero, Terry’s
surgery was something he performs
frequently, but for the patient it is a
serious operation. “That makes it very
important for us to take time to go
step-by-step through what was going
to happen during surgery, recovery and
rehabilitation,” Dr. Cordero said.
“I trusted Dr. Cordero,” Terry said.“I
knew he was highly qualified and could
practice anywhere, but chose Kadlec.”
During Terry’s five hour open-heart
surgery, Dr. Cordero performed a
quintuple bypass.
According to Terry, his recovery has
gone exactly as Dr. Cordero predicted;
— Continued on page 2
March
2013
KEPR-TV anchor Terry Chick is back on the
news set after having open-heart surgery at
Kadlec Regional Medical Center in August.
WHAT’S YOUR RISK?
To take a quick heart
health risk assessment
quiz online, go to Kadlec’s
website at
www.kadlec.org
and click on the banner
.
Good
news
he wasn’t in a great deal of pain but the
first few days following surgery were
a bit of a blur. He was released from
the hospital after a week. He started
walking around the neighborhood,
increasing the length and frequency and
eventually adding in hills. His next step
was to begin Kadlec’s CardioPulmonary
Rehabilitation program. Since surgery,
he has lost 20 pounds.
Just seven weeks post-surgery,Terry was
back in his chair in the television studio.
While Dr. Cordero was able to
reroute the blood flow into Terry’s heart
through bypasses, his risk for cardiac
artery disease continues.“Following
surgery, the heart has better blood
flow but it is not a cure,” he said.“It
remains important for patients like
1 2,3,4,5,6,7,8