Name: Lance Tibbetts
Email: lance.tibbetts@unh.edu
Age at time of Dissection: 42
Type of Dissection: Ascending
Date of Aortic Dissection: 11 July 2011
Tell Us Your Story: Aortic Dissection Survivor
Ihave always been a healthy individual, played sports in High School, enjoyed golfing and hanging out with my wife and kids. I had my most recent physical back in October of 2010 and all blood work and EKG and blood pressure looked great. So what happened to me this past summer in July just shook my family to the core. On July 11th while at work taking care of the Athletic Grounds for the University of New Hampshire, I suffered my first symptoms of an Aortic Dissection. I was mowing our game soccer field and felt a rush of blood to my head. It went up both sides of my neck, proceeded to create “lightening” bolts in my eyes before it went down into my back and chest. I was all alone on the fields that day which consist of 55 acres.
As I struggled to breath I remembered thinking “just relax, you can breathe through this, you have one more field to mow”. Typical guy I would say. I tried to work through the pain and labored breathing until I couldn’t take it anymore and called my wife and then I got in contact with my primary care physician and was encouraged to go to the ER. I had one of my coworkers drive me the 8 miles to the ER Department and was admitted. While there they performed an EKG (which I think is a joke), chest x-ray and did blood work.
After spending 6.5 hours in the ER, the doctors told me I suffered a Migraine and they wanted me to see my Primary due to the fact they heard a murmur. I proceeded to tell them I have never had a murmur and they still didn’t do any further testing. Mind you my last 1.5 hours in the ER where spent sitting in a chair in the hallway, because they needed a bed and I wasn’t a priority anymore. So, I was discharged and proceeded to drive 1.5 hours home with my Aorta dissecting. When I got home I immediately tried to relax, but I was in too much discomfort. Later that night when my wife and I went to bed, I was sitting up and looked at her and said “Honey, I am going to die tonight”. Well after that comment I was on my way to ER #2. Once again we drove in, we should have used the Ambulance. We spent another 6 hours in the ER with the doctors proceeding to tell me I had a severe chest pull. All they did was look over ER #1’s lab work and test. Even though I mentioned I felt like I was going to die, the ER doctor in charge said I didn’t meet the profile for further testing.
They heavily sedated me and sent me on my way. I stayed out of work and saw my Primary where he proceeded to order a CT Scan through Cardiovascular Consultants. I was not able to get in until the 22nd of July. I went back to work on the 18th of July on nonrestrictive duty and proceeded to work in 90 plus degree days mowing, painting fields and lifting 50 lb bags of fertilizer all week. I went to my CT appointment on the 22nd, I walked into the appointment with a coffee in hand and the tech immediately gave me a echo and then excused herself and left the room.
At that time a doctor came in and said “Mr. Tibbetts, you are going to the hospital for emergency surgery, you have an Aortic Dissection”. My response was “at least it is not a heart attack”, that is where they proceeded to tell me the severity of what I had. I called my wife and told her I was having a procedure in the hospital and she needed to get in ASAP. By the time my wife showed up I was already 20 minutes into surgery. When I arrived in the ER via Ambulance, Dr. W met me at the door and asked me if I was a religious man, I said yes why? Dr. W said I was going to need gods help to get through this. Dr. W told my wife that it looked like a bomb went off in my chest.
My aorta was torn from my heart past my aortic arch. About 7 inches total. I spent 99 minutes on bypass and my aorta wasn’t repaired, it was replaced. During the operation, clergy were called in twice to administer the anointment of the sick, and my family was being prepared for the worse. Dr. W, came into the family waiting room raised his hands and said “It’s a miracle”. Now the only concern was brain function. I went 9 minutes longer than anyone ever did on bypass for Dr. W. Well, I had a CT of my head and everything looked good. During the CT they saw 5 more areas of concern with my heart and aorta.
I proceeded to have a angioplasty surgery and thankfully everything came out okay. For someone who wasn’t expected to make it off the table to be able to write this is truly a work of god. I am trying to piece my life back together. It hasn’t been easy, I still struggle daily with cognitive issues and I have started to see a Therapist to deal with all the emotional baggage that comes with what we go through surviving something like this. I will leave you with some advice…..If you ever feel you are having a heart attack or a dissection, call the ambulance. Don’t drive, have the professionals take you in and fight for the right test. Get a CT or an ECHO and fight for you right to live.
I wonder if things could have been different if it was detected 10 days earlier.
Lance T
New Hampshire
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Lance,
Congratulations on surviving your aortic dissection and the life-saving surgery! Your story is a very powerful one and that you have lived to tell it seems a miracle after the long delay in getting the surgical repair. There is no doubt that you have survived a trauma that many cannot withstand and I hope that your recovery–both physical and emotional–continues to go smoothly.
My beloved baby brother Bob was not as lucky as you. He too suffered an event that he knew signaled the end of his life, at 34 years of age, in 2006. He sought help in the ED of the hospital where he was born, and languished as you did for hours and hours, finally receiving a diagnosis of “constipation” despite his and his wife’s protests that as a vegetarian, he had no trouble in that department. (An abdominal xray showed a dark area that was pooled blood but was misread as fecal material, and no further diagnostic workup was done). He was discharged to home, where he died in the wee hours of the morning, of cardiac tamponade the end result of an ascending dissection of the aorta.
One of my life’s missions is to promote awareness of the missed opportunity for detection and surgical intervention that all too often occurs in these cases when a person seeks help in a hospital ED. There is something profoundly wrong with the methods of diagnosis, when a patient tells a provider, “I think I’m going to die” and the provider stops short of the diagnostic workup that would identify the reason for this belief that is nearly always accompanied by cardiac and or abdominal symptoms that should not be ignored when heart attack is ruled out. In my brother’s case, he was healthy, a life long athlete, and it struck while he was ringing up a customer’s purchase at his surf shop, out of the blue. But he knew something terrible had happened inside his core, yet the provider evaluating him in the ED ignored his verbalization of impending doom. When his wife had to leave the ED in the late evening to pick up their children at a sitter’s, Bob took off his wedding ring and asked his wife to wear it for him. That should have been a signal as clear as an air raid siren, that more was wrong than “constipation” yet the provider was so vehement that this was the problem that his wife acquiesced and her last words to Bob when he got home from the ED were, “Maybe the doctor is right. Let’s see how you feel in the morning”. Unfortunately, Bob only made it to 3AM, when he got up to use the bathroom, he collapsed in front of his 5 year old daughter who had awakened and was in the process of asking how he was feeling.
My sister in law sought financial renumeration for the botched diagnosis, and won a lawsuit in 2010 that will provide for her and their children, Hope, now 10, and Peregrine, now 7. I would suggest that you consult a very good medical malpractice attorney; it sounds like you have a case as well. Your last sentence sums it up perfectly: if the surgery had not been delayed for so long, who knows how much better off you would be at this point.
I wish you the best as your recovery continues, and
live well, laugh often, and love much. Life is a gift!
Best regards,
Kathy Pollard
Can I ask what hospital your intial check in was at during the first attack of AA symptoms? Well done for hanging in there. One day at a time.
Best wishes
Dave
Brother I understand I had my ascending aorta dissect 3 years ago all the way to my groin. They did a hemi-arch about 6 mos. later I felt poorly ct showed my descending aorta had dilated from 3.8 to 5.2 cm and the false lumen was clotted. I had my second surgery 2 years ago. I still have my arch and my abdominal aorta; really hoping they hang on. I have only sympathy for what you and your family have gone through. My wife really has had a hard time and my nine year old daughter was really hurt. Thank God for the skill of the surgeons and anesthia. I find the what if kinda useless but you have a rare gift you are here and maybe have something left to do. My personal goal is to see my daughter graduate college and happily marry.
Jim