Ed D. and his wife, Florence, had recently returned from a five-day Caribbean cruise when the retired truck driver and grandfather momentarily felt a cold sensation arc across his shoulders. Years ago, he had high blood pressure, but that had long been under control, and his cholesterol levels were always good. "I never thought I had a heart condition," says Ed, who turned 74 in June.
As a precaution, though, he took an aspirin. Nonetheless, his wife insisted on driving him that Saturday night to Temple University Hospital – Jeanes Campus—which is just eight minutes away from their Northeast Philadelphia home—to get checked out.
Good thing she did. As Ed was checking in to the Emergency Department, his heart suffered cardiac arrest. Fortunately, the emergency physicians resuscitated him so quickly that he suffered no heart damage. Then, a few days later on April 1, to overcome Ed’s artery blockages, Robert S. Boova, MD, the hospital's chief of cardiovascular surgery and a Temple heart surgeon, successfully performed coronary artery bypasses.
Six days after nearly dying, Ed was back home—without ever needing any pain medication. "We went to Jeanes Campus because it's our neighborhood hospital, it’s close to our house and we've had good experiences there before," says Ed. "And believe me, I couldn't have asked for a better experience this time."
