Seton Heart Institute

Sometimes I like to check that the old ticker is still ticking. This tinman doesn’t work without that particular organ so I went to Seton heart for an EKG. Though I was actually at the Far West campus, the doc I saw — Vu Nguyen — splits his time between that campus and this one.
Fill out the paperwork online beforehand. Just trust me on this. It’s like a bible and will take you like 20 minutes to write in a cramped hand all of your ailments and family history. Then Warren put all these little nodes on me and hooked me up to a machine that looks like a dot matrix printer. Then that’s handed to Dr. Nguyen who looks into your soul and makes you answer the same questions. I think if I ever even had a proclivity to lie about health problems, I’d abandon that at the door.
He proclaimed my heart healthy and relatively happy and sent me on my way. It was quick and efficient but I didn’t feel like I got the bums rush like you do sometimes in these kinds of places.

I’m sitting here writing this review exactly three weeks after major heart surgery. Yesterday, I was cleared for driving and work, and I’m still quite astonished that a mere three weeks ago, I was laying on a surgical table, with my heart cut open and all kinds of tubes and wires coming out of me. I know there were several factors that helped – I have tremendous faith, and an overall positive attitude; I’m also a relatively athletic guy, and in fairly good health, but still…
I have to give kudos to not just the doctors, but the entire staff here at Seton. From the nurses, to the techs, all the way to Unilocaler Phillip B, who worked in an entirely different section of the hospital, but he made sure I had enough magazines to read during my stay. The overall level of care I received, I couldn’t imagine being any better.
The procedure I had, was the removal of an aneurysm from my ascending aorta, which is basically right above my heart. It was replaced with a section of surgical tubing, and now my blood once again pumps seamlessly, fluidly, and efficiently from the heart to the rest of my body. My team of doctors, –my cardiologist Dr Matt Stahlman, and my cardiac surgeon Dr Mark Felger – were the «dream team» that made this whole experience not just a success, but surpassing all expectations.
Then, I have to throw one out there to my cardiac rehab team, particularly Janine, who even stopped in even on her time off, just to make sure I was doing well. Every staff member, from doctor to custodial staff was excellent, caring, and helpful. To say «I owe them my life» is not a cliché, but a fact.