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DEL.ICIO.USEmory hits milestone
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The band was playing “Wooly Bully.” And Terry Green was on the dance floor, gettin’ down.
It was 1997. Green and his wife of 36 years, Danette, were on a cruise to the Bahamas. Suddenly, he seized up while cutting the rug. A pain, similar to a leg cramp, consumed the center of his chest. He immediately went to the ship’s infirmary.
At first there was doubt he’d suffered a heart attack. Indigestion, maybe, but not a heart attack. He didn’t have all the telltale signs: discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach; nausea and light-headedness.
But an EKG showed a definite abnormality. Green was stabilized until the next morning, till the ship could dock. A Nassau ambulance service would take him to a hospital. Before that could happen, though, he went into cardiac arrest. Three times.
“The reason I know they had to shock me three times is because they bill you for each shock,” Green, 61, told me, laughing.
When he returned to Atlanta, his heart condition remained stabilized for many years. Then in the latter part of 2006, Green said the “perfect storm” struck again. One of his prescriptions was filled with the wrong medicine. He had had some dental work done and - though it was never proven - Green suspects that bacteria affected his heart.
He spent time at Eastside Hospital. His heart operated at bare minimum. The retired state employee and fifth-generation Gwinnettian eventually had a heart pump put in. Doctors adjusted medications. But in January 2008, he worsened.
“Even though I had a Super Bowl Party planned, they decided that I should go stay at Emory,” Green told me.
And that’s where he remained until he was released March 17. With a new heart, and a piece of history.
He’s “Mr. 500.”
Green is the 500th patient to receive a heart transplant at Emory University. His surgery took place on March 8.
In June, the hospital held a press conference to mark the milestone along with the 20th anniversary of its heart transplant program. In a video, Green is flanked by Dr. Sonjoy Laskar and J. David Vega, the surgical director.
Besides the 500 adult heart transplants, the Emory Clinic cardiothoracic surgeons have performed more than 200 pediatric heart transplants, according to hospital spokesman Lance Skelly.
Green was pleased to help the hospital celebrate the milestone, but found one aspect of it disheartening - that more transplants haven’t been done. Emory has a transplant waiting list of about 50 cardiac patients.
“My concept was that this was more frequent and common that what it is,” he said during the news conference.
Today, Green feels fine. He takes a “godly dose” of drugs - two immunosuppressants and medications for high blood pressure and cholesterol. He goes to Emory every now and again for check-ups and rehab work.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “I was so rundown with the old heart, and I got so much energy and vigor with the new heart. It’s amazing that it would make that much difference.”
As for being No. 500, well, Green is content.
But he would have been just as pleased to be No. 499 or No. 600.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
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By LT5000
August 3, 2008 12:53 PM | Link to this
My favorite line that proves what a third rate writer Badie is.
“A pain, similar to a leg cramp, consumed the center of his chest”
The AJC could have saved some money by firing Woody and Badie and replaceing them with third graders.
Badie you will be cancelled very soon. Please try and write a salient article.
LT5000
By Neil and Bob
August 3, 2008 1:25 PM | Link to this
LT, Oz never did give nothing to the tin man that he didn’t already have.
Go clean your gun and stfu.
moron.
By Bruce Wilcox
August 3, 2008 11:02 PM | Link to this
It is still hard to believe that there is such a thing as a heart transplant, some of us are old enough to remember the first one!
Cat Scratch Fever and the dental work are two of the major entry points for bacteria. This isn’t a joke, I lost a fellow very healthy firefighter years back to what we refer to as cat scratch fever. The bacteria takes many forms, the flu, a bad cold, by the time you finally go to the doctor it may be too late.
Clean all wounds and cover, sounds simple, how many do it? Any time you have any kind of medical treatment done, be the baby if you feel something is wrong.
An aside…my mother-in-law, who is out of state, had a sponge left in her recently, the operation to get it out was on the house.
Terry Green, glad you’re with us, spread the word and Congrads on being the 500th wonder!
By Michael H. Smith
August 4, 2008 12:58 AM | Link to this
Shades of Ted Nugent, thought Ol’ Jesse was going to rock the night away for a moment there with all that Cat Scratch Fever. Anyhow, here’s hoping Gwinnett will get heart surgery approval without anymore delays.
Of course, with all the TB and Salmonella being imported under the watchful eyes of the CDC and FDA, who knows what bacteria is floating around these days.
Nice to have Gwinnett Medical close by.
By T
August 4, 2008 6:42 AM | Link to this
My sister died in 1976 of liver failure due to hepititus. They believe she was exposed to it, delivering her first child in the hospital.
Today, she could of received a liver-transplant (not available in 1976). I stand amazed at modern medicine …
I wonder when they will be able to preform a brain transplant? I might want to get in line for that one.
By Baseball Wrap
August 4, 2008 6:14 PM | Link to this
T, I’ve got the perfect brain for you to transplant into your head, I found it in a jar labeled, Abbey Normal.
It……could……WORK!!!