Heart patient back in full swing

  • Published
  • By Merrie Schilter-Lowe
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – James Willoughby spent 10 years in the Army as a radio repairman.  After separating, he worked 32 years for the railroad, the last 10 years as a train master in Los Angeles, California, overseeing the safe arrival and departure of passengers and cargo and, when necessary, investigating accidents. 

 

For the past six years, Willoughby has coordinated food and emotional support for victims of wildfires, hurricanes and other disasters around the country as an American Red Cross volunteer.  But in 2017, it was Willoughby who needed assistance.     

 

On Aug. 11, 2017, surgeons at the David Grant USAF Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base, performed a coronary artery bypass surgery graft on Willoughby to improve blood flow to his heart and prevent a heart attack. 

 

“They did a heck of a job,” said Willoughby from his home in Magalia, California.  “A less talented team would have closed me up and sent me home.  They are phenomenal people and I feel fortunate to have stumbled across their paths.” 

 

Willoughby’s former lifestyle contributed to his condition.

 

“I grew up in Oklahoma eating a lot of fatty foods,” he said.  “My whole family did.  We’d say, ‘if it can’t be fried, it’s not worth eating.’”  

 

At age 43, Willoughby gave up a 30-year, three-packs-a-day cigarette habit with the help of acupuncture.   Now in his 60s, Willoughby has coronary artery disease.     

 

The problem surfaced when Willoughby was age 52.  First, he had breathing issues and a frequent urge to burp.  Next came severe chest pains.  Doctors diagnosed him with atherosclerosis – a fatty buildup of plaque in the arteries.

 

In 2002, Willoughby underwent surgery for a stent – a tiny wire mesh tube inserted into the blocked artery to hold it open and improve blood flow to the heart. 

“There are two ways to treat atherosclerosis,” said Lt. Col. (Dr.) Shea Pribyl, 60th Medical Group, one of the cardiothoracic surgeons to treat Willoughby at DGMC.  “One is to go inside the artery through the groin, that’s called a stent, and the other is to do a bypass surgery.” 

 

The stent served Willoughby well for about 15 years and then it clogged.     

On Aug. 4, 2017, Willoughby was driving back to Magalia after dining out with his wife, Jessica, and their friends when he started having chest pains.

Chest discomfort is one of the most common signs of heart disease in men, according to Lt. Col. (Dr.) Joseph Sky, 60th Medical Group chief of cardiology.   Women are more likely to have other symptoms along with chest discomfort, including jaw and neck pain, shortness of breath, nausea and extreme fatigue, he said. 

 

Willoughby was 17 years old when his father died of a heart attack at age 46.

 

“Most of the men in my family have died of a heart attack,” he said.

 

Despite his family history, Willoughby did not go to the emergency room but waited until Aug. 7 to seek medical care at the Sacramento Veterans Administration Medical Center outpatient clinic in Sacramento, California.  He was given a stress test. 

 

“I lasted two minutes on the treadmill,” said Willoughby.  “Then they gave me a white pill and told me to put it under my tongue and, the next thing I knew, I was on the way to Travis.” 

 

Sky was on-call when Willoughby arrived at DGMC.  He performed additional tests and decided his patient would be best served with bypass surgery.

 

“I thought I would get another stent, but they said my arteries were too corrupt,” said Willoughby.    

 

During the operation, surgeons removed the right and left internal mammary arteries from under Willoughby’s breastbone and connected, or grafted, them to the blocked arteries creating a detour around the blockage.

“It’s a lot like driving down I-80 and getting stuck in a traffic jam,” said Pribyl.  “You take a side street to bypass the traffic and then get back on the highway.  We don’t necessarily remove the clot, we just divert the blood beyond it.  We use medications to stabilize the clot so it does not break loose.”   

 

Following several months of rehabilitation, Willoughby returned to his volunteer duties with the Red Cross.  His first assignment was a wildfire in Butte County, California, in October 2017. 

 

“I called Dr. Sky to ask if I could sit in the (emergency operations center), which is where I usually end up,” said Willoughby.  “He said I could if I didn’t lift over five pounds or walk too much.”

 

Following the Butte County fire, Willoughby traveled from one disaster scene to another, coordinating Red Cross assistance during some of Northern California’s biggest wildfires.  Then he flew to Guam following a typhoon in 2018 and then to Florida where Hurricane Michael leveled Tyndall Air Force Base.  At one point, Willoughby said he spent only eight nights at home over a four-month period. 

 

Willoughby was still in Florida in November 2018 when he got a phone call that his wife was preparing to evacuate their home in Magalia because of the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, which is considered one of the deadliest in the state’s history.

 

“I think the best thing about this story is that we were able to help him go back to his work as an American Red Cross volunteer,” said Sky.  “Stories like this one reminds us that veterans are still actively contributing to society.  And, when we can make them healthier and happy, everyone wins.”

 

That includes Air Force medicine, according to Pribyl. 

 

“More than 60 people were involved with this case – from the anesthesiologist to the radiology and laboratory technicians to the respiratory therapist, intensive care unit nurses and the perfusionist who operates the heart-lung machine,” said Pribyl.   

 

A significant number of those people deployed within a year of Willoughby’s surgery, including Sky.   

 

“This case took place in 2017 and I deployed in the summer of 2018,” he said.  “The skills that I used to care for this veteran allowed me to take care of combat and ICU patients at Bagram (Afghanistan).

 

“In the combat theater, we have trauma surgeons and orthopedic surgeons, but we still need nurses and technicians who are good at taking care of sick patients,” continued Sky.  “The skills we learn at home allow us to be successful in the field because of that overlap.”