Florida hospital worker survives three heart attacks in four days after stent procedure

Tommy Bell knew he had not always eaten well, but after starting work at a Florida hospital more than 10 years ago he began paying closer attention to nutrition.

At 62, he felt fit. He did not smoke or drink, he ate better than before, and he walked more than 10,000 steps a day while moving patients at AdventHealth DeLand Hospital.

The day before Thanksgiving last year, Bell felt mild chest pain on his drive home. He returned to the hospital for tests, which showed a blockage in his "widowmaker" artery and calcium buildup around his heart. Doctors scheduled a procedure to insert a stent.

Bell spent Thanksgiving in the hospital and received the stent the next day. Soon after, he was hit by severe pain.

"I went into a fetal position, and I could not straighten back up," Bell said. "I could remember people saying 'Tommy, you need to straighten back up so we can fix this.'"

Tests showed he had suffered a heart attack. Doctors placed another stent, and his condition stabilized. He was sent home the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The next morning he felt what seemed like heartburn. His wife drove him back to the hospital. From that point he recalls only fragments.

"I got in the car, and then I don't remember the trip there. Then I remember pulling into the valet area. They came out with a wheelchair," Bell said. "I remember somebody saying 'I want to see the EKG,' and then I heard someone say 'Send him straight to the cath lab.'"

"When I finally came around, I was in the ICU again, and I was told I had two more heart attacks," he said. "That's three heart attacks in four days. ... I was thinking, 'What have I done to myself?'"

Dr. Janak Bhavsar, an interventional cardiologist at AdventHealth DeLand, said a blood clot that formed after the first procedure caused the later attacks. The complication occurs in 0.5 to 1 percent of stent patients, he said. Bell also had a large blockage, which raised the risk.

"When there's a lot of calcium around the artery, it limits how much the stents can expand to improve blood flow," Bhavsar said. "That can cause some slowing of the blood flow and make it more prone to a blood clot forming in the stent."

Bhavsar's team performed an intracoronary lithotripsy. A specialized balloon was inserted into the artery and emitted electrical shocks to break up the calcium, allowing the stent to open wider. Bell received a second stent and was placed on blood thinners.

He remained in pain for several hours after waking, Bhavsar said, but it was a side effect rather than another attack. He stayed in the hospital four more days under close watch. Friends, coworkers and staff visited constantly.

"The amount of love that was poured out and that was expressed on my behalf was so overwhelming," Bell said. "I couldn't believe that people cared about me like that. I had everybody from administration come to my room and just pray over me. Our chaplains, our staff, the heart doctors, the nurses, everybody, all the way down to housekeeping and transport. Everybody stopped in to see me. They actually had to slow it down a bit, so I could recover."

Bell spent two weeks recovering at home before returning to work. The familiar setting felt strange at first, but colleagues helped ease the transition. He met with the hospital's rehabilitation team to discuss further changes.

"They said my cardio is fantastic," because of his daily job duties, Bell said. "Now, it was time to get on with the dietary team and figure out how to change my diet."

Bell had eaten a lot of fast food in his 20s and 30s. He later cooked more at home, but he had not focused on salt and cholesterol. Those earlier habits "added up over time," he said. Most arterial buildup cannot be reversed by lifestyle changes alone, according to Harvard Medical School.

Bell now eats leaner meats and salads. He swaps recipes with other heart attack survivors and carries healthy snacks. He continues regular follow-up visits with Bhavsar.

"I could not believe that this had happened to me. I thought I ate right, I took care of myself fairly decent, and I never thought it would happen to me ... I didn't really think I had to change anything, but we did change it," Bell said. "I can change my future in the way I eat."