Bill's (Corbin) Cardiology Story

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- [Bill] There's two things that usually
make a photograph work,

and that's light and conditions.

I don't, any longer,
go out looking for subjects.

I go out looking for light.

I'm really a child at heart,
that's just my personality,

and I look at everything as,
if it's not fun, why should you do it?

And Sherlaine's the settled person
that makes sure that the ship

stays upright in our marriage.

Well, we have three
children and six grandchildren.

Wesley, our middle son,
passed away a couple of years ago

from lymphoma.

Scott is still with his family in Florida,
and Catherine of course is here in Corbin

and works with Dr. Subra at the clinic.

For several months, I had
been having chest pains.

And one morning, I was here at
the house and I started really having

a lot of pressure in my chest.

And I called Catherine and I said,
"You know, I don't know whether if I

should come in or not."

I really didn't want to.

And she said, "Get your
you-know-what in here."

- [Dr. Subramaniyam] In heart attack,
time is always like the essence.

The faster you open up the blocked artery,
the better the long-term outcomes

for the patients are.

- Dr. Subra saw me, and he said,
"We need to get you in the hospital,

and in the morning, I want to do
a heart cath, because," he said,

"there's something going on."

And he said, "I'm concerned."

So the next morning, I had a heart cath.

And when I woke up from it, I thought,
"Man, I haven't felt this good in years."

- So Bill had a 95% blockage in the main
artery that supplies more than 50% of his

heart muscle, and that's probably the
reason why he wasn't feeling really well.

And we were able to open up that artery
with a balloon, and we put in one stent.

And the artery looked great after
that, and he had more oxygen

going into his heart muscle.

And that's probably the reason why
he started feeling better right away.

There is no major surgery involved,
and there is no major blood loss involved.

- I would say to anybody who is having
heart issues or any issues that you know

that you probably should
go talk to your doctor.

- We don't want to wait until people have
a big heart attack for them to show up

because the risk of complications and
challenges are even more higher in those

patients, especially if they have a family
history, anybody in their family who had

heart attacks in their 50s
and 60s or even younger ages.

Or if they have other risk factors,
including high blood pressure,

high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity,
we want those patients to have more

awareness regarding, what are all the
atypical or what we call the non-classical

symptoms of a heart attack.

It's pretty common people
just don't feel right.

That could be their only symptom,
and they will feel like they don't have

any energy to do what
they used to do routinely.

And sometimes they might have some
difficulty breathing when they're trying

to do some activity or they might have
some chest pain here and there,

but nothing that they would think
that it's due to a heart attack.

- Catherine has been just
a precious child for me.

She very much saved my life.

I think we're very fortunate for
Appalachia where while we don't have

a lot of things that other
places have, we do have

real, high-quality healthcare here.

Sherlaine, she worries about my health
because I'm a type 2 diabetic,

and I've known I had
heart issues for a while.

She said, "Well, I really
want us to celebrate our 50th."

So thanks to Dr. Subra,
I made it to my 50th.

She got her wish, and I got to
stick around for a little longer.

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