When Walt Morris started experiencing a handful of symptoms in early 2022, he downplayed every one of them.
Neck pain? Must be stress.
Headaches? Nothing a little ibuprofen and ice couldn’t fix.
Erratic heart rate? Probably too much caffeine.
Aching jaw? Maybe he was grinding his teeth. Or, it’d just been a long week of teaching driver’s education and coaching high school basketball.
When he suddenly lost his ability to swallow and started sweating, he went to the restroom, splashed water on his face and powered through. When it happened again, he brushed it aside and didn’t mention it to anyone.
“I’m just getting old,” the then-62-year-old told himself.
Plus, he mostly felt good and healthy. He led an active lifestyle. He was on the court with his athletes nearly every day. And he walk-jogged a 3-mile loop around his neighborhood in Noblesville, Indiana, several times a week.
He was on that loop in July 2022 when a jolt of jaw pain knocked him to the ground.
A young man saw him fall and ran over to him.
“Do you want me to call 911?” he asked Morris.
Morris peeled himself off the ground and said no thank you.
He shuffled the last quarter-mile to his house and walked inside, thinking he just needed to lie down.
His wife, Lisa, was home from work because she was on her last day of recovery from back surgery. She was going shopping with their daughter but hadn’t left yet. Then Walt walked in, sweating profusely, his face white.
He touched his jaw and said, “My tooth is killing me. It just knocked me to my knees.”
Lisa said, “Your tooth knocked you to your knees?”
Morris explained that pain had shot from one side of his jaw to the other and bowled him over.
“We’re going to the emergency room,” she said.
“It’s just a bad tooth,” he repeated.
Lisa had worked in a cardiology office for 20 years, so she wasn’t about to let him talk her out of this.
At the hospital, doctors put Walt through a series of tests. But they couldn’t figure out what was wrong.
A cardiologist asked him to stay overnight to go through more testing the next day. Lisa again insisted he make the safe decision.
The next morning, Walt got an echocardiogram, a test that uses high-frequency sound waves to produce images of the heart. He was told the test would take nearly an hour. Just minutes after starting, the doctor said, “You had an aortic dissection.”
An aortic dissection is when a tear occurs in the inner wall of the major artery where blood flows out of the heart.
“It’s possible you only have 30 minutes to live,” the doctor said. “I’d put you in a helicopter if I could.”
Because he couldn’t, Walt went via ambulance – with a police escort – to the nearest heart center. A surgeon agreed to stay late to operate on Walt.
“And surgery can’t guarantee anything,” the cardiologist told Walt.
The surgery lasted 11 hours. It was a success. He later learned that a 38-year-old man had the same procedure at the same time – with a different result.
“I’d never been more aware of the line between life and death and just how close I’d come to crossing it,” Walt said.
Doctors later discovered that Walt was born with a common congenital heart defect that can lead to life-threatening complications.
It’s called a bicuspid aortic valve; while a normal heart has three cusps, or leaflets, in the aortic valve, his heart had two. Because the aortic valve controls the flow of blood leaving the heart, a missing cusp can disrupt the flow.
Walt had much to absorb at such an emotional time. He found himself reflecting on all of the things that saved his life.
That Lisa was home when she normally wouldn’t be. That she made him go to the hospital instead of letting him rest on the couch.
That his medical team got to the bottom of his issue just in time. That the surgeon stayed and put in a 21-hour day. That ignoring his symptoms didn’t take his life.
“My gratitude for life has increased a lot,” he said. “After my recovery, I started thinking about what I can do with the gift of more time and how I can serve others in bigger ways.”
Walt eagerly shares his story through as many channels as possible. He wants to raise awareness about heart issues and stresses the importance of checking symptoms and sharing family history with doctors.
In fact, that’s another item on his list of mistakes. Walt had never told his primary care physician about a family history that included his dad having had an aneurysm in his heart.
Since his episode, Walt has made sure his relatives get checked out. Good thing: His older sister discovered she also had a bicuspid aortic valve and was able to address it through surgery.
He’s also heard from people who discovered their own heart issues after learning about his story.
Lisa said she’s not surprised that Walt has found a way to turn his negative into a positive.
“Walt’s always cared about helping others,” she said, “and that’s only intensified since his surgery.”
Written by Emily Halnon.
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