Runner Stricken at Bix 7 Receives Life-Saving Heart Procedure at Genesis  (Posted 9/29/06)

Spending last winter in Mexico, Terri Sutton would take off in the morning to walk and jog on remote dirt trails.  She didn't consider the thought that if she had a health emergency, she could be in desperate trouble. 

There was no reason for 50-year-old Sutton to think the worst about her health.  She was doing everything by the book.  She ate right and exercised vigorously nearly every day.  She was heart smart. 

On July 29, 2006, Quad City Times Bix 7 race day, Terri Sutton discovered that sometimes doing everything right doesn't matter.  If she had been on one of those remote trails in Baja, Mexico, that day could have been her last. 

Her pedometer showed that she was 4.6 miles in to the 7-mile Bix run she had completed twice before and was trying to complete for the second straight year.  On Kirkwood  Boulevard, in the torrid heat of the second-hottest Bix race ever, Sutton was one of the Bix runners and walkers who dropped.  

"I was dizzy and light-headed.  I just couldn't go on so I sat down thinking I was just going to rest.  The truth is that if I had been somewhere else that day, I could have been buzzard foot," said the engaging woman who lives in Mount Vernon, Iowa.  "I was fortunate to be where I was.  

"I was with thousands of runners and spectators who helped me.  The spectators were offering me water, cold cloths and kept asking if they could do something for me.  After a while, they knew I needed ambulance." 

"I was fortunate to be in a place where I could get excellent health care from Genesis and from Dr. Blair Foreman.  I truly was in the right place at the right time."  

Erratic Heart Rhythm
On the day of the race, Sutton was one of the 25 runners and walkers transported to the hospital.  She was one of six inpatient admissions, the highest number since 1997.

"I was lying down in the emergency room at Genesis West.  They had me on  a heart monitor, and I went into ventricular tachycardia.  The next day, they showed me the printout and what it looked like when it was normal compared to what it looked like when I went into ventricular tachycardia.  The line looked like my 4-year-old grandson was scribbling on the screen with a crayon," Sutton said. 

Sutton had a heart attack brought on by the dangerously fast heart rhythm.  The fast heart rate was robbing her heart of necessary blood flow and oxygen, resulting in the attack.  The attack, she was told, had little to do with the heat or the exertion of the race.  It was just her day to have the attack, which was inevitable for Sutton considering her condition.  That thought is now scary to Sutton.  

"You hear about people who do everything right to take care of their heart and still drop dead suddenly from a heart attack.  It can happen to anyone," she said. 

Sutton was critically ill.  Her condition was diagnosed as non-ischemic cardiomyopathy, or a weakening of the heart muscle.  There were no heart artery blockages and no family history of heart disease.  She was told that a previously undetected heart virus may have been a factor in her condition. 

"Had she been out where there were no people around, she probably would not have survived.  It was fortunate she was in the race that day," said Blair Foreman, M.d., of Cardiovascular Medicine, P.C. 

On July 31, Sutton had her first heart procedure at Genesis Medical Center, East Rusholme Street, to determine the extent of the problem under the direction of Stephen Alldredge, D.O.  A coronary angiogram demonstrated a weak heart muscle, but normal coronary arteries. 

Dr. Foreman was able to duplicate the erratic heartbeat he had seen during an electrophysiology study.  On August 1, Dr. Foreman inserted an implantable cardioverter defibrillator into Sutton through a two-inch incision underneath her collarbone. 

Implantable cardioverter defibrillators are devices that sense cardiac rhythm and pace the heart if necessary.  The device can shock the heart to restore normal rhythm when necessary.  There are a number of other functions possible.  

Dr. Foreman, Kent VanWhy, M.D., and Michael Giudici, M.D., all with Cardiovascular Medicine, P.C., are three of about a dozen cardiologists in Iowa who perform the procedure.  The three Quad Cities cardiologists implant more than 300 of the devices each year at Genesis Medical Center, East Rusholme Street. 

Training for the Bix
"I was 100 percent pleased with Dr. Foreman, Genesis and the Genesis nursing staff.  Everyone was fantastic," Sutton said.  "I've been told that only a few doctors in the state even do this procedure, and I've been told that if you are having it done in Iowa, you want to have it done at Genesis or the University of Iowa."

Sutton has had to adjust her adventurous exercise routine, but she is back to walking six miles a day.  She is in training for a special race. 

"When I woke up in the hospital on Sunday after the Bix, it was sad because I was reading the results of the race in the Quad City Times and I didn't have a number or a time.  I wasn't there in the results," she said.  "My daughter, Melissa Koop, was running with me that day and I told her, 'I want to go back and finish'".  

Race director Ed Froehlich is seeing to that.  On October 7, Sutton will put her Bix number back on and finish the last 2.4 miles of the race with her daughter.  

She'll finish with a healthier heart and a new lease on life. 

-- By Craig Cooper, Genesis 

Did You Know?
About 92 percent of all procedures to open heart blockages at Genesis are done less invasively in one of eight cardiac catheterization labs.  Most hospitals perform 20-30 percent of their heart procedures as open-heart surgery compared to about 8 percent at Genesis Medical Center, Davenport. 

Recovery is much quicker from cardiac catheterization procedures than from open-heart surgery.  Open-hear surgery is available at Genesis Medical Center, and for some patients, is the best option.