DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — A Dayton man who suffered a heart attack and several strokes celebrated a successful open heart surgery with a virtual reunion at Grandview Medical Center. Doctors are calling his story a miracle.
“It’s really a blessing to be here. You doctors have obviously saved my life,” said Maurice Walker.
Earlier this year, 38-year-old Maurice Walker was taken to the hospital after having a heart attack.
“Every morning around 4 o’clock in the morning I would wake up with severe pains in my chest to the point where I’m on the ground crying,” he said.
After several hospital scares and multiple misdiagnoses, he was treated at Grandview Medical Center with an Impella heart pump and open heart surgery all during the coronavirus pandemic. Doctors at Grandview said it was a miracle he survived.
“He was at full cardiac arrest and his downtime was extensive and all it takes is a few minutes of not enough blood flow to or oxygen to the brain and people just don’t recover, neurologically, from this very rarely do they recover,” said Dr. Thomas Ruff, Cardiologist at Grandview.
“It was just amazing to see his son talking to him and his wife about to give birth and just seeing them be a family…The pictures behind them seeing the family they were before this and then now is just a very heartwarming experience,” said Ashley Miller, RN at Grandview.
Walker’s heart-to-heart with the team who saved his life is the first virtual heart recovery reunion for Kettering Health Network.
