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as told by John and Deloris Atkisson
Our friends joke that my wife, Deloris, and I always do everything together. But, this was something we never planned to do as a couple. It all started on New Year’s Day 2006. I felt pressure and a funny feeling in my chest. At first I thought I had the flu because I felt sick to my stomach too, but Deloris was worried so she took me to the Sparta Hospital emergency room. That’s where we realized this was something much more serious than the flu.
 The doctors in Sparta determined I was having a heart attack and I was quickly transferred to Gundersen Lutheran on MedLink AIR. The doctors at Gundersen Lutheran performed a cardiac catheterization and discovered I needed triple bypass surgery, which they scheduled for Tuesday morning. In the middle of the night before my surgery, things took an unusual turn.
I was sleeping in John’s room because he was going into surgery very early. Around 3:30 in the morning, I started feeling what I thought were sympathy pains in my chest...only the pains wouldn’t go away. I went out to the nurses’ station and told them I was having chest pain. They immediately took me down to the Trauma & Emergency Center where I got the unbelievable news. I was having a heart attack. I told the doctor, “My husband is the one having heart surgery. I can’t be having a heart attack!”
But, it was true. I spent the rest of the night in a room down the hall from John. Just before he was taken in for surgery, the staff on CCU wheeled him into my room so we could say goodbye. A short time later, I was taken to the Cardiac Catheterization Lab where doctors inserted a stent to keep my blocked artery open. It’s not every day the Heart Institute performs procedures on a husband and wife at the exact same time, but they were wonderful about keeping our kids and me up to date on what was happening.
As we’ve recovered from our ordeal, we’ve done it together. We shared a room in the hospital, did our cardiac rehab at Gundersen Lutheran at the same time and made diet and exercise changes together. Today, we’re feeling great. We know our strong faith in God and the prayers of many friends, along with the excellent care we received at Gundersen Lutheran, helped us make it through a difficult time.
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