Former heart patient reunites with staff who saved his life
Scott LeJeune, 52, was a former patient with Our Lady of Lourdes Heart Hospital back in August of 2021. After a couple of years he returned to thank the medical professionals who saved his life.
LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) -- Scott LeJeune, 52, was a former patient with Our Lady of Lourdes Heart Hospital back in August of 2021. After a couple of years he returned to thank the medical professionals who saved his life.
“Thankful to be here. Thankful for the care, thankful for the doctors, the nurses,” said LeJeune. “When I stayed here [at the hospital] for 22 days; down to everyone who walked in the room, from the dietitian, to the cafeteria lady, to the cleaning lady; it [was] unbelievable, you have no idea how much comfort you can give someone in these walls in a time that you're searching, you're grabbing. You're grabbing for faith hopefully, that's what I did and you're grabbing for comfort and people who are trained to do their job.”
LeJeune described the journey to when he discovered his heart was failing. At the age of 50 years old, he thought the fatigue he was feeling was due to old age and the stress of life. In addition, he said COVID-19 was a concern at the time so he thought that it was such symptoms and kept “putting it off.” It wasn’t until his wife brought him to a walk-in clinic in Scott they learned LeJeune had fluid around his heart and other issues.
“I can remember the morning of Wednesday coming here with my wife, bringing me for an angiogram and it was worse than that,” he said. “So a lot of emotions: fear, scared, not knowing what I was getting into as far as the medical team, as far as the support, the technology.”
Dr. Chance DeWitt, a Cardiothoracic Surgery with Our Lady of Lourdes Heart Hospital, explained LeJeune's condition when he first came to them.
“He probably may not have realized it himself. He was beginning to have a slow deterioration but I think most of the time the families will see a deterioration in it from energy levels, and fatigue and so when he got to us, his heart was functioning probably about 10 to 20% of what it should be functioning. So that is a very sick heart,” Dr. DeWitt explained.
However, there was hope for LeJeune as medical professionals offered a solution with Impella 5.0.
“It wasn’t far ago we had limited ability to support a failing or very sick heart and with this device, particularly the Impella 5.5, it's a nice size device that we can actually implant into the heart through one of the major arteries of the body and it will nearly take over the work of the heart to supply the blood flow to the body,” said Dr. DeWitt. “Probably five years ago it was only possible in major centers like Houston, New Orleans, and now with this technology being disseminated to the hospitals, we're now more confident and have the ability to take care of sicker and sicker patients and honestly, seeing a lot of them recover. Do quite well, get back to their families and really before this, the other option was really medical management and waiting ultimately to die.”
LeJeune shared with News 10 about how the emotions between his family, the medical staff and the support he received helped him overcome fear and move more into trust and surrender.
“We’re very lucky. We were able to do a successful bypass surgery where we could get blood flow back to the areas of the heart that needed it and then were able to support him with this device, the Impella, to get him through the postoperative period and quite honestly, he's recovered very nicely,” said Dr. DeWitt.
LeJeune hopes his story can encourage others to check their health. He said don’t read what’s on social media, just go to the professionals.
“Don’t neglect it, because had I neglected it, I think I was already on borrowed time. I was already behind schedule and I could have easily been checked before, but just was naive to it and fear. You get scared a little bit. You think it's going to be okay. I'll just wait till tomorrow but if anybody gets a message, you go get checked, get screened. They give you so much technology and so many resources to be able to do this, take the time to do it,” he said.
Since the surgery two years ago LeJeune changed his lifestyle and diet. He’s graceful.
“God gives a lot of blessings to people who work in this field and they perform things that for me, I'm just a retail guy. I just go to work every day. These people touch people's lives and they do it in a very professional way. Things that you're just scared of. You're fearful of, but they’re professionals,” he said with joy. “For now, I've got five kids, got a grandkid, and it's enjoying life a little bit.”