FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Every 33 seconds one person in the U.S. dies from cardiovascular disease making it the leading cause of death in this country.
A free program in Broward County was implemented to help diagnose patients, like 58-year-old Andrew Cooper, before it’s too late.
Cooper has always been in shape and enjoys an active life.
“Last year I was probably riding at Markham Park, which is a mountain bike park, probably getting about 5-6 hours of riding in every single week,” Cooper said.
He never imagined there could be something wrong with his heart until he decided to take part in a county-wide initiative called ‘The Broward Heart Project.’
“The program was started by the Broward County Commissioners, and it was meant as a preventative cardiac screening program for patients in Broward County,” said Dr. Kenneth Herskowitz, Medical Director of Cardiovascular Surgery at Broward Health Medical Center.
Herskowitz said the program provides funding primarily for a CT scan of the heart.
“What we’re doing is we’re putting a small IV Into the patient, giving them a little bit of dye and then we can take a CAT scan of the chest. Actually, we take a CAT scan of their coronary arteries and look at their heart and we can look at their coronary anatomy very closely,” Herskowitz said.
Although he had no symptoms, Cooper’s scan shows critical blockages in his arteries.
“Very often we can find things we can’t pick up on a cardiac stress test,” Herskowitz said.
“So literally 26 hours after walking into the hospital I was actually going into surgery for a quadruple bypass. It was so quick I didn’t even have time to think about it,” Cooper said.
He’s grateful for the program that he calls a lifesaver.
“Without the scan the only way I was really going to find out was most likely, well almost certainly at some point in my life, I was going to have a fairly severe heart attack, which, obviously, this is a much better way for me,” Cooper said.
The Broward Heart Project will continue as long as funding is available.
For more information go to: https://www.broward.org/takehearttest/Pages/default.aspx