K.H.M.H. Performs Life-Saving Heart Surgery

There is an artery in the heart referred to as the “widow maker”, because a blockage in that artery can lead to a fatal heart attack. On August eighteenth when thirty-five-year-old Floyd Moro began experiencing an unbearable pain in his chest, he drove himself to the San Ignacio Community Hospital. What he did not know at the time was that his left anterior artery was blocked and that it was a race against time. Moro eventually made it to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital that morning where he underwent a lifesaving procedure. Today, he is back home with his wife and two children in San Ignacio, thanks to that procedure. News Five’s Paul Lopez reports.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

One month ago, Floyd Moro was racing against time. The thirty-five-year-old San Ignacio resident suffered an acute heart attack. Doctors refer to the artery that was affected as the “widow maker”.

 

Dr. Chen Lin, Cardiologist, KHMH

“So if that is blocked completely the mortality is high. The chances of you living afterwards or even having complications, or you have very bad complications afterwards.”

 

Moro recalls the moments leading up to the heart attack.

 

Floyd Moro, San Ignacio Resident

“I was working during the day and after work I went to the farm to do some spraying and I feel a chest pain grab me. So, one of my good friend said, this nuh look good. He said he would finish it, so he grab the machine and I gone rest up in the vehicle. One oclock in the morning is when I feel something grab me. It waked me up and I get up and gone drink a cup of water and the pain nuh come off. So I tell my wife I gwen dah hospital and she said she gwen.”

 

The clock began counting down for Moro.

 

Dr. Chen Lin

“The timing to get here, we call it the ballon timing or door to immediately poke the patients, usually it should be less than hundred minutes. That is the perfect time.”

 

He drove himself to the San Ignacio Community Hospital where several tests were done on him. He was then transported to the Western Regional Hospital where he stayed for a brief moment before being ambulanced to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. There Doctor Chen Lin and his team had already prepped the Catheterization Laboratory for Moro’s arrival.

 

Floyd Moro

“As I reach dah Belmopan, they give me more pain killers because the pain was growing stronger on my chest. So we gawn dah Belize and when we reach dah Belize, everything mih just like, dah just a miracle. Deh doctors mek I gone in the theater right so, no check up, nothing. They already knew exactly what I have.”

 

Moro was fortunate, because Doctor Lin was scheduled to go on vacation the following day. Furthermore, a team of physicians from Charlotte and Atrium Health were in country providing support to the hospital’s cardiac program. They too were scheduled to leave the country the following day.

 

Dr. Chen Lin

“Usually for someone that has a heart attack, the first thing we should do is coronary andriography. It is a procedure usually where we go through the leg or through the arm, we put a catheter right through the heart and we inject some dyes, and we take some pictures to localize exactly where the block is. Once we localize the blockage, we try to fix everything through the same hole we poke and so these are minimally invasive procedure, really micro arteries we fix, usually three to four millimeter in size. We try to do it when the patient is awake and we do it between forty- minutes to an hour.”

 

Floyd Moro

“I give thanks that people from North Carolina mih the yah, because they don’t do that kind of operation here. I went in the theater and Dr. Lin did the surgery with the help of people from North Carolina and Dr. Coye and I just glad I the yah now. During the operation the doctor that gave me the anesthesia put me to sleep and middle of the thing I wake up and I tell Doctor Lin that my heart still have a little chest pain. He said, I the eena your heart right now. I put my head down and went back to sleep again and when I wake up pain gone.”

 

Doctor Lin reopened Moro’s blocked artery through a minimal invasive procedure. A stent or a small tube was placed in the affected area to keep the artery from ever clogging again.

 

Floyd Moro

“I feel like I change oil. I feel new brand.”

 

Outside of Belize, this medical procedure can cost as much as thirty thousand U.S. dollars. At the KHMH, the cost is fifteen hundred dollars.

 

Dr. Chen Lin

“They actually lend us expertise, materials, donations. The plan is always, we don’t look for begging or donating. We have a five-year plan that eventually we will have a stand alone program. But we have to get everyone in place to have everyone at the right place and the right time.”

 

As for Moro, he is just grateful that Doctor Lin and the team at KHMH gave him a second chance to be with his wife and two teenage children at home.

 

Floyd Moro

“I know people always say things about the hospital, but they do a good job there. They really treat me good. The nurse and the staff really treat me good.”

 

Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.