A Change of Heart
Heart Surgery Leads an Oakville "Grill Master" to Eat Healthier Foods
Oakville resident Jerry Suelmann was the typical backyard cook. Burgers were almost always on the menu, with fried or fattening foods on the side.
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He was the picture of good health — or so he thought. “I realized over time that I was feeling very tired,” he says. “I’d go for short walks and there’d be a pain in the left side of my back and in my jaw. But if I sat down for a while, the pain would go away, so I didn’t worry too much. It wasn’t like I had severe chest pain to make me think something was wrong with my heart.”
With high cholesterol and high blood pressure, Suelmann was a ticking time bomb. A self-described “type A” personality, he had stopped regular exercise several years prior and was overweight. Encouraged by his family to visit his doctor, Suelmann underwent a cardiac stress test on a treadmill, which he failed. At St. Anthony’s where he underwent an echocardiogram and other tests, cardiac specialists found major problems.
“One of Mr. Suelmann’s arteries was completely blocked; the other was 90 percent blocked,” says cardiovascular surgeon James Scharff, M.D. “He had atypical symptoms of a pending heart attack, but he had many of the risk factors for heart disease. He very easily could have had a heart attack or stroke without warning. We set him up for bypass surgery immediately.”
Surgery was critical because Suelmann also was diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease, a genetic condition that can affect blood vessels in the brain and heart. “We didn’t want to exert any undue stress on his kidneys by using a heart-lung bypass machine and stopping his entire heart during surgery,” says Dr. Scharff. “Instead, we performed a complex off-pump bypass procedure, which basically allowed us to keep the heart beating while we bypassed the heart’s arteries.”
In the off-pump bypass procedure, a patient is not connected to a heart-lung machine. Instead, only a portion of a coronary blood vessel is stabilized, or stilled, at a time while the surgeon constructs the bypasses. Nationwide, only an estimated 20 percent of all coronary bypasses are performed off-pump, which requires extensive surgical skill. In St. Anthony’s Heart and Surgical Pavilion, Dr. Scharff is one of only a few cardiovascular surgeons in the region performing off-pump procedures on a regular basis. “I use the off-pump procedure for 80 percent of my patients now because my results, as well as data from around the country, suggest that patients recover faster than with traditional coronary bypass.”
Following surgery, Suelmann underwent months of rehabilitation in St. Anthony’s Cardiac Rehabilitation Program. He also dramatically changed his eating habits to include chicken, pork tenderloin, fish and vegetables as the main fare. “I eat totally differently,” he says. “I include whole grain foods and watch the fat and salt content now. I’ve lost more than 23 pounds since the surgery and I’ve even got my whole family eating healthier.”
“It’s a different grocery list for sure,” says Suelmann’s wife, Kelly. “But we got a wake-up call to be healthier and it’s a good thing for all of us.”
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