By Darby Kendall
Nancy Andring lovingly refers to her husband, Jim, as her “miracle man.”
After undergoing emergency cardiac surgery last February, Jim beat the odds of survival from a Type A aortic dissection. Now, thanks to the care he received at OHSU, Nancy and Jim will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary this summer.
The aorta is the main artery in the human body, responsible for delivering the oxygen-rich blood supply that keeps us alive. Aortic dissection is a tear in a weak area of the aorta, which can lead to organ damage, stroke or death. On a Saturday afternoon in southern Washington, Jim dissected his aorta while moving 120-pound tires from the back of his truck.
“Jim noticed that something was burning, and he felt like he was having a heart attack,” Nancy said. “We got him down to Skyline Hospital in White Salmon within 10 minutes. He seemed to be feeling better, so we thought, ‘Well, maybe he’s herniated his back again.’ Then the emergency room doctor there said, ‘The Life Flight to OHSU is 10 minutes out.’ My heart dropped when the doctor stressed that ‘this is emergent.’”
The ER doctor in White Salmon had called the Life Flight immediately upon discovering Jim’s diagnosis, greatly increasing his chances of survival. Jim arrived at OHSU within half an hour and immediately underwent surgery that lasted over 12 hours.
“A total of eight people in the surgery room saved his life,” Nancy said. “Dr. Castigliano Bhamidipati repaired Jim’s dissected aorta. When he got done with that, he realized that Jim had had a preexisting hole between the chambers of his heart. So, Dr. B went in to repair the hole between the chambers and noticed that the chamber wall was too thick, so he thinned that out. Then he repaired the hole under the aortic valve.”
However, Jim wasn’t out of the woods once his aorta was repaired, Nancy recalled. “They had to put in a temporary pacemaker, because the surgery had to change the connection between the top and the bottom of his heart, so his lower heart couldn’t beat on its own anymore. As they were suturing him up, the temporary pacemaker’s wire got dislodged, so they had to reopen him up again. A physician’s associate performed heart massage with their hands for a minute, while Dr. B put the pacemaker wire back in place, and then they closed him up again.”
Castigliano Bhamidipati, D.O., Ph.D., M.Sc., FACS, FACC, who performed the aortic surgery on Jim, remembers the day clearly. About 40% of people with Type A aortic dissection die immediately from complete rupture and bleeding out from their aorta, so Bhamidipati knew how high the stakes were.
“The coolest part of his story to me is that Jim is a White Salmon School District bus driver,” Bhamidipati said. “It is my privilege and a true honor to care for him and be part of his journey returning back to his school kids and his bus route this year.”
After the surgery, Jim spent the next 11 days in the OHSU cardiac ICU, with nine of them on a ventilator. He doesn’t remember much after flying out of White Salmon, but he knows Nancy and his medical team were there for him the whole way.
“My words cannot begin to express my thanks and love for [my care team]. They made all the difference in the world,” Jim said. “My recovery was slow, but I was able to return to work after seven months. I hope my story is an inspiration to others.”
Nancy, their children and grandchildren are also incredibly grateful that Jim is still alive and healthy, particularly as his medical journey didn’t end with the surgery.
“I’ve been calling Jim my miracle man. The second miracle is that because of the loss of blood to his kidneys from the aortic dissection, his kidney function was lower,” Nancy said. “They had him on continual dialysis for 10 days, through his neck, and then they took that out and had him go down for dialysis every two days. Just a couple of days before he left OHSU after being there for three weeks, the kidney doctors as a team came in with big smiles and said, ‘Your husband’s kidneys have bounced back some, so he doesn’t need dialysis anymore.’”
If it weren’t for the care Jim received from every member of his medical team, from the nurses to the doctors to the staff, Nancy asserts their time at OHSU wouldn’t have been the same.
“After he got to OHSU, it was like a well-oiled machine. They prepared him; they did everything they needed to do and got him into surgery immediately,” Nancy said. “I can’t say enough about the care that he was given. Over those first 10 days, we didn’t know whether he was going to survive. Everyone was wonderful, but in particular, several nurses are very special to our memory.”
Now, the Andrings have this summer to look forward to, as they’re bringing their family to Cancun to celebrate half a century of marriage. Nancy said she and Jim are excited for their future, and they’re grateful to OHSU for playing a part in that.
“We’re going to be celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary on July 24 and so I told Jim, ‘You promised me you’re not going anywhere,’ and he hasn’t.”
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