How Geneva couple saved each other's lives

To say the holiday season was ruined for the Vokeny family of Geneva in 2021 would be accurate.To say the family faced devastating consequences from the trauma it endured when 58-year-old Al eida Vokeny suffered a massive heart attack in the kitchen a few days before Christmas would be inaccurate.

The sequence of events triggered by Aleida's complicated heart attack led not only to her husband Jeff saving her life with CPR but also to Jeff being saved by a new awareness about the discomfort he had been feeling in his own chest - and ultimately being tested and finding he also needed open-heart surgery.

If reading that last paragraph wore you out, imagine what it did to Aleida, Jeff and their three adult kids. Ultimately, you can sum it up the way the staff at Northwestern Medicine called this a case of "love and cardiac surgery," as the couple really did save each other's lives.

This story also calls for a big shout-out to the Boy Scouts of America and their training of young people to learn CPR. That skill kicked in for Jeff, a former Boy Scout, Eagle Scout and Scout Pack leader when he found his wife collapsed on the floor on Dec. 22, 2021.

"It was a good thing we did CPR when we did it," Jeff said. "God just stepped in, and it wasn't her time. When you are involved in something like this, it happens so quickly you don't think about it. It just sort of kicked into CPR."

Jeff noted that it was probably 15 years ago when he learned CPR again with his son when he was an adult Scout leader. "But I learned it myself decades ago, and the Scout skills just all came back to me (in the emergency)."

Aleida, who doesn't remember much of anything about her near-fatal attack, is thankful her husband has a good memory for lifesaving skills.

"I'm sure thankful they did come back to him," said Aleida, who was far from out of the woods simply because her husband got her heart pumping again before paramedics arrived. Her arteries were so blocked that physicians feared they might be unable to perform the surgery.

There is never a good time to have a massive heart attack, but the Vekony family learned that to have one just before Christmas could be categorized as the worst time.

"When Aleida had her heart attack, we took her to Delnor Hospital close by, but when they realized what was going on, we went to Central DuPage Hospital, a better heart center," Jeff said. "But it was over the holidays, and most of the surgeons and medical staff were out on vacation. No one there could do an in-depth review of her case until they came back."

Aleida's heart was so weak that her surgery was on hold until late February 2022 when Dr. Gyu Gang, chief of cardiac surgery at Central DuPage, performed a tricky but successful surgery to repair the heart.

"Aleida's case was dramatic," Gang said in a notice to the media about the Vekony operation. "Her arteries were blocked and rock solid due to calcium and plaque."

That made it impossible to sew a stitch through them for bypass surgery, Gang added. "She required a coronary endarterectomy where you shell out the artery. Few surgeons will attempt that during a bypass surgery."

Not long after Aleida's surgery, Jeff realized some chest pains he had ignored as simple stiffness after workouts needed closer inspection.

In the back of his mind, Jeff, age 60 at the time, always knew his father had a heart attack at age 67, even though he was in good shape. "I have always been paranoid about that since I was about 30 and started having the stress tests," Jeff noted. "I had one in 2019 just before COVID that was normal."

But the stress test and angiogram on Feb. 28, 2022, revealed that Jeff, admittedly overweight, had 80 percent blocked arteries and needed open-heart surgery. The incredible irony of a husband and wife having heart surgeries weeks apart was one thing, but that they essentially saved each other's lives in the process was a twist of fate with positive returns.

"When Jeff had to go through his, it was unexpected, and they said his condition was like a 'widow maker,' and I said, 'what?'" Aleida explained. "We were going to go away for that weekend, but I don't know CPR and could not help in an emergency, so it was good that he found out."

The entire family took Jeff to Central DuPage for his heart surgery in March 2022. "I didn't recall much of my time in the hospital, but our kids (two sons and one daughter, all in their 20s) knew what to do at CDH because they had been through the routine with their father when I was there," Aleida said of the family's sudden familiarity with the hospital.

After two months of recovery, Jeff and Aleida went through months of rehabilitation back at Delnor Hospital. Based on how medical awareness and quick thinking during emergencies saved the family, Aleida and Jeff hope their message pushes people to focus more on their health, the body's signals and how to recover and care for a loved one, including knowing what sort of medications are taken and when.

And it's not all about the Vekony family in a medical story of this nature, they said. Not by a long shot.

"All of those nurses and doctors are heroes," Aleida said. "You don't appreciate it until you go through it, but they are really dedicated."

dheun@sbcglobal.net