Matters of [her] Heart

When Dad recorded the events of his first heart attack, his account was brief, matter of fact, and to the point. But as you might imagine, Mom remembered many more details than he shared - the memory of that event is probably etched in her mind and heart forever!

View overlooking Hawthorne, Nevada
Clearly not a booming metropolis!

We had been visiting Chuck (Tom) and Carol in Hawthorne, Nevada for several days in March of 1983. Hawthorne was a very small town. Chuck and Carol did their shopping at Falon, which was 70 miles away. [And I'm guessing that Hawthorne lacked a major medical center that would have excellent cardiac care.]

Lou had chest pains the entire day while we were driving from Hawthorne to Kaysville, Utah to visit Lou and Colleen. Lou didn’t tell me about the chest pains until the next day. We even stopped at an Italian restaurant and ate a big meal along the way. If I had known about the chest pains, we would have gone to the hospital instead of the restaurant.

The next morning we drove into Salt Lake to go to the Church Distribution Center. While we were there, Lou said he didn’t feel well and went out to the car. Since Lou never complained much, I thought I’d better check on him. When I went to the car, I decided we’d better call the paramedics. The Distribution Center had its own paramedic team which came out and started checking Lou. They also called the fire department paramedics who put him on a stretcher in the parking lot. An ambulance took him to LDS hospital in Salt Lake - one of the paramedics said they were very good with heart patients - and I followed in our car.

They checked him out at the hospital and said there was no evidence that he had had or was having a heart attack. Lou said he felt fine. I asked them to keep him overnight for observation. That evening while Lou was eating his dinner, he started having chest pains again. I called the nurse, and she called the doctor. The nurse took me out in the hall and said Lou was having a heart attack. Lou always told of how they took him up the hall into the elevator and to the heart cath lab in such a hurry that they bumped into the walls a few times. It must have been quite a ride!

At that time [the drug] streptokinase was being tried in just four hospitals in the United States, and LDS hospital was one of those. Streptokinase was supposed to dissolve the clot blocking the artery. They did give Lou the drug, and he said within 15 minutes his chest pain was gone.

Lou said the doctors kept talking, trying to make up their minds about something [when they got him to the cath lab.] They decided to do a balloon dilation to the artery while he was still in the lab. Later the doctor said that Lou had made the medical history books. He was one of the first 15 to 20 people to receive streptokinase, and he was the second person at LDS Hospital to receive the two procedures (streptokinase to dissolve the clot and balloon dilation to open the artery) at the same time.

We were definitely in the right place at the right time for him to receive excellent medical care.

Our friends could not believe that Lou Butler could have a heart attack. He was slender, played ball every week and didn't smoke or drink. But his gender, genes and age (he had just turned 60) were against him. Lou had very little damage to his heart, and he recovered in a very short time. This may have been due in part to his good physical condition. A few weeks later he took a treadmill test. He did better than 95% of men his age (not those who had had heart attacks.)

Lou said it was the first time he had time for a heart attack. He had been released as the Stake President in January and retired from the school district in March. We had a lot of plans for the months following his retirement, and we were able to do all of those things, because he recovered so quickly. We visited our kids, vacationed with Clark and Carolyn Harriman in Port Aransas, Texas, and took a trip to Mexico.

A couple of significant events that occurred at the time of this heart attack:

• This area of Utah experienced a "100 year" east wind storm. I could not open the car door because the wind was so strong. Lou, Jr. would have to help me get in the car so I could go visit Lou in the hospital. I parked in the parking garage at the hospital so I was out of the wind and could get in and out of my car by myself!

• Our grandson, Matthew, was born while Lou was still in the hospital (April 3)

Recovering Grandpa - Grandma - new baby, Matthew Aaron
April, 1983