Selected Podcast
Heart Patient's Wife Testimonial
Cathy Bearse shares a personal testimonial of the care her and her husband received at TVH.
Featured Speaker:
Cathy Bearse
Cathy Bearse is the wife of a heart attack patient. Transcription:
Melanie Cole, MS (Host): Welcome. This is TVH Healthchat with Temecula Valley Hospital. I'm Melanie Cole. Today in our patient testimonial we have Cathy Bearse. She’s the wife of a patient at Temecula Valley Hospital. Cathy I'm so glad to have you join us today. Tell us your story. Tell us what happened to your husband Steven and how Temecula Valley Hospital saved his life during a heart attack.
Cathy Bearse (Guest): On October 25th we went to [Rancho ph?] and while he was at Rancho he experienced a heart attack. They rushed him quite quickly over at Temecula Valley where Dr. Desai met us at the door and within seconds had rushed my husband to the cath lab. He came out and he had put an apparatus in my husband’s heart that was hopefully going to help a little bit and that they were going to schedule a triple bypass because he was pretty clogged. He had three arteries that were pretty—85, 95%, and 90% clogged. This is hereditary for him by the way. It’s not something he was eating because he’s a chef. While we were at the hospital never once did I want or need anything. The nurses there, the doctors there, the staff, everybody was phenomenal. They reached out are you okay? Do you need anything? Are you going to spend the night tonight because we’ll bring you some blankets. I have been in the hospital a lot in my life because I have a lot of asthma and I have pneumonia a lot. I've never once in my entire life—and I'm 65 years old—never once have I met a hospital that was so well equipped and so customer oriented, patient oriented that they went out of their way to make his visit there as enjoyable as he can be having a triple bypass surgery.
The anesthesiologist just was so specific about everything they were going to do and blah, blah, blah. He went through a checklist. If I had any questions, he was there to answer them. He was so thorough in his giving of information that I did not need to have any questions answered. He answered them in his opening statements to us. It was phenomenal. Just the whole visit. I have nothing but the highest esteem for everybody in that hospital. I totally enjoyed everyone who worked there. In the intensive care unit there was a couple of nurses that stuck out to me. I can't remember the young man’s name, but he spent the night with my husband the first night he was there. The other girl she was always, always being so helpful to my husband. Everybody there was phenomenal. Dr. Larry Hoffman was just the best. Dr. Hoffman did everything. It was just the best experience of my life in a hospital.
Host: Wow, that’s quite a story. Cathy really just amazing. Now, how have they helped him navigate his condition now and lead a life of independence since the event. How have they contributed to his continued recovery?
Cathy: It’s funny because they give you the doctors that they know will follow you through with everything. They lined us up with a really good heart doctor. I love Dr. Rosario. I love Dr. Briggs. She’s actually our family doctor and she’s been extremely helpful about putting him on the right foods. They give you a really cool booklet that tells you what you're going to feel, how you're going to feel it, and when you should start feeling better. That booklet sidelined everything. It lined up everything for us. So we knew exactly what we were going into when we went home, and it was awesome.
Host: Wow. So how does he feel now? How do you feel now?
Cathy: I feel like he’s on the road to recovery. We know it’s not going to be one that’s going to happen overnight. That’s what he wants. It’s not going to happen like that, but it’s one that I know it requires progress. I mean that will be progressive. It does require people to do, especially him, to do certain things. Like now he’s jumping at the bit. He wants to go back and workout. I have an appointment to go see Dr. Rosario. The one thing he said to me, “Please ask him if I can go work out again.” I'm like okay, I will. He’s juts chomping at the bit to go back working out. He went back to work in January. He’s doing very good. He wants his life back to normal. His stamina has changed immensely. He’s really upset about that, but I told him what did you want? You had open heart surgery honey. Things don’t happen overnight. You don’t heal overnight from that. He said, “I know, I know. The paper said so. I guess I was just hoping that I would be the different one.” I said, “No. You're not the different one. You're just the same. You’re going to have the same problems everybody else has.”
The one cool thing that came out of this was a friend of ours, George Mills, called Steve and said, “I have to have open heart surgery. I'm having a double bypass.” He and Steve say down, and Steve gave him a list of everything that happened and how it happened, chronologically list. It helped George through. It really did. He and George now have a super different common bond that they’ve never had before because they both had open heart surgery. They're closer friends because of it. I think that’s kind of neat that it worked out like that.
Host: Well it is really amazing. What would you like to tell your doctor and your husband’s doctor about that care that you received?
Cathy: They were phenomenal. His nurse’s name was Kim and he had a physician’s assistant named Tim. Then he had a nurse assistant and his name was Matt. Matt and Tim never left my side whenever I had questions, whenever I needed advise, whenever I wanted to ask questions they were there for me in a heartbeat. It makes me feel like okay. I'm not alone out here. I've got someone I can go to. I texted Matt three months after everything happened and Matt still gives me the answers that I want. To me that’s awesome because you don’t have that anywhere else in life. Sorry it doesn’t exist. It’s awesome because like I said I cannot find that. I've not found that anywhere in my life where people have followed you and asked you how are you doing? How’s it going? What’s going on with you? It’s been awesome.
Host: Well what a story. Thank you so much Cathy for joining us and telling us about your husband Steven and the excellent experience that you had at Temecula Valley Hospital. We wish you both so much luck. Thank you again for joining us. That concludes this episode of TVH Healthchat with Temecula Valley Hospital. Please visit our website at temeculavalleyhospital.com/services/cardiovascular center for more information and to get connected with one of our providers. Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and all the other Temecula Valley Hospital podcasts. Physicians are independent practitioners who are not employees or agents of Temecula Valley Hospital. The hospital shall not be liable for actions or treatments provided by physicians. This is Melanie Cole.
Melanie Cole, MS (Host): Welcome. This is TVH Healthchat with Temecula Valley Hospital. I'm Melanie Cole. Today in our patient testimonial we have Cathy Bearse. She’s the wife of a patient at Temecula Valley Hospital. Cathy I'm so glad to have you join us today. Tell us your story. Tell us what happened to your husband Steven and how Temecula Valley Hospital saved his life during a heart attack.
Cathy Bearse (Guest): On October 25th we went to [Rancho ph?] and while he was at Rancho he experienced a heart attack. They rushed him quite quickly over at Temecula Valley where Dr. Desai met us at the door and within seconds had rushed my husband to the cath lab. He came out and he had put an apparatus in my husband’s heart that was hopefully going to help a little bit and that they were going to schedule a triple bypass because he was pretty clogged. He had three arteries that were pretty—85, 95%, and 90% clogged. This is hereditary for him by the way. It’s not something he was eating because he’s a chef. While we were at the hospital never once did I want or need anything. The nurses there, the doctors there, the staff, everybody was phenomenal. They reached out are you okay? Do you need anything? Are you going to spend the night tonight because we’ll bring you some blankets. I have been in the hospital a lot in my life because I have a lot of asthma and I have pneumonia a lot. I've never once in my entire life—and I'm 65 years old—never once have I met a hospital that was so well equipped and so customer oriented, patient oriented that they went out of their way to make his visit there as enjoyable as he can be having a triple bypass surgery.
The anesthesiologist just was so specific about everything they were going to do and blah, blah, blah. He went through a checklist. If I had any questions, he was there to answer them. He was so thorough in his giving of information that I did not need to have any questions answered. He answered them in his opening statements to us. It was phenomenal. Just the whole visit. I have nothing but the highest esteem for everybody in that hospital. I totally enjoyed everyone who worked there. In the intensive care unit there was a couple of nurses that stuck out to me. I can't remember the young man’s name, but he spent the night with my husband the first night he was there. The other girl she was always, always being so helpful to my husband. Everybody there was phenomenal. Dr. Larry Hoffman was just the best. Dr. Hoffman did everything. It was just the best experience of my life in a hospital.
Host: Wow, that’s quite a story. Cathy really just amazing. Now, how have they helped him navigate his condition now and lead a life of independence since the event. How have they contributed to his continued recovery?
Cathy: It’s funny because they give you the doctors that they know will follow you through with everything. They lined us up with a really good heart doctor. I love Dr. Rosario. I love Dr. Briggs. She’s actually our family doctor and she’s been extremely helpful about putting him on the right foods. They give you a really cool booklet that tells you what you're going to feel, how you're going to feel it, and when you should start feeling better. That booklet sidelined everything. It lined up everything for us. So we knew exactly what we were going into when we went home, and it was awesome.
Host: Wow. So how does he feel now? How do you feel now?
Cathy: I feel like he’s on the road to recovery. We know it’s not going to be one that’s going to happen overnight. That’s what he wants. It’s not going to happen like that, but it’s one that I know it requires progress. I mean that will be progressive. It does require people to do, especially him, to do certain things. Like now he’s jumping at the bit. He wants to go back and workout. I have an appointment to go see Dr. Rosario. The one thing he said to me, “Please ask him if I can go work out again.” I'm like okay, I will. He’s juts chomping at the bit to go back working out. He went back to work in January. He’s doing very good. He wants his life back to normal. His stamina has changed immensely. He’s really upset about that, but I told him what did you want? You had open heart surgery honey. Things don’t happen overnight. You don’t heal overnight from that. He said, “I know, I know. The paper said so. I guess I was just hoping that I would be the different one.” I said, “No. You're not the different one. You're just the same. You’re going to have the same problems everybody else has.”
The one cool thing that came out of this was a friend of ours, George Mills, called Steve and said, “I have to have open heart surgery. I'm having a double bypass.” He and Steve say down, and Steve gave him a list of everything that happened and how it happened, chronologically list. It helped George through. It really did. He and George now have a super different common bond that they’ve never had before because they both had open heart surgery. They're closer friends because of it. I think that’s kind of neat that it worked out like that.
Host: Well it is really amazing. What would you like to tell your doctor and your husband’s doctor about that care that you received?
Cathy: They were phenomenal. His nurse’s name was Kim and he had a physician’s assistant named Tim. Then he had a nurse assistant and his name was Matt. Matt and Tim never left my side whenever I had questions, whenever I needed advise, whenever I wanted to ask questions they were there for me in a heartbeat. It makes me feel like okay. I'm not alone out here. I've got someone I can go to. I texted Matt three months after everything happened and Matt still gives me the answers that I want. To me that’s awesome because you don’t have that anywhere else in life. Sorry it doesn’t exist. It’s awesome because like I said I cannot find that. I've not found that anywhere in my life where people have followed you and asked you how are you doing? How’s it going? What’s going on with you? It’s been awesome.
Host: Well what a story. Thank you so much Cathy for joining us and telling us about your husband Steven and the excellent experience that you had at Temecula Valley Hospital. We wish you both so much luck. Thank you again for joining us. That concludes this episode of TVH Healthchat with Temecula Valley Hospital. Please visit our website at temeculavalleyhospital.com/services/cardiovascular center for more information and to get connected with one of our providers. Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and all the other Temecula Valley Hospital podcasts. Physicians are independent practitioners who are not employees or agents of Temecula Valley Hospital. The hospital shall not be liable for actions or treatments provided by physicians. This is Melanie Cole.