Pulmonary embolism is the third leading cause of cardiovascular death behind heart attack and stroke. The signs of this sneaky disease aren’t always easy for people to identify, but are critical to survival. That was the case for Randy Pool, a retired teacher and coach, whose normal day quickly became a fight for his life.
“You know, everybody keeps telling me, "Hey, there's a reason why you didn't die, why somebody intervened and brought you back." And I don't know what that reason is. I'm sure it'll be an a-ha moment. This is why my life was spared,” said Pool.
Mixed Signals and a Lucky Catch
On Sept. 23, 2024, Randy was getting ready for a round of golf when he simply couldn't catch his breath. Fearing it was a heart attack, he was taken by ambulance to Avera St. Mary's Hospital in Pierre. After that short 30 minute drive, his vitals had stabilized, but he still wanted answers.
“At my wife's insistence, they finally took me back and did a chest X-ray. And when they did that, the doctor on call that day came flying out of the room, told her to go home and get some clothes, that he had called for the airplane and that my lungs were full of blood clots,” said Pool.
He had developed a pulmonary embolism caused by blood clots in his leg that had broken free and were now blocking his heart's pulmonary artery. This blockage was the reason Randy was short of breath and the reason his symptoms were alluding to a heart attack.
“And it's not truly like we think about a heart attack where there's not blood flowing through the heart arteries. It's more that the heart is actually straining so much to try and get any blood that it can through the lungs to be oxygenated,” said Mark Fleming, MD a vascular surgeon at North Central Heart Institute.
In the Right Place, at the Right Time
Randy needed immediate surgery at Avera Heart Hospital to clear out the blood clots and remove the strain on his heart.
“I went through the doors of the operating room and I remember the bright lights and there were two people standing there and I said to them, 'Whatever you do, don't let me die before my wife gets here.' And that basically was it. Next thing I remember, it's what, 10 days later honey? Colleen came in and kind of filled in the blanks. They had no trouble taking the blood clots out and were finishing up surgery and you flatlined and basically you died,” said Pool.
“He is definitely a miracle. If you look through the statistics, when your heart stops with a pulmonary embolism, your mortality rate is about 95%,” said Dr. Fleming.
“But she said, the persistence of Dr. Fleming and his staff that day, he didn't give up on me. He told the people in the room and he told Colleen the same thing. 'He's not here, but I think he's in there and we're going to see if we can find him,'” said Pool.
“You just sit and pray. That's all you can do. So we were blessed,” said Colleen Pool, Randy’s wife.
“We did resuscitate him for about three hours in the cath lab and then took him up to the ICU and he made a miraculous recovery,” said Dr. Fleming
For over three hours, a combination of manual CPR and other life-saving techniques and medications were used to resuscitate Randy. His life was spared, but he still wasn't out of the woods. A medically induced coma allowed Randy's heart an opportunity to recover from the immense strain it endured from the embolism and after 10 days, he woke up. While Dr. Fleming's team worked to strengthen Randy's repaired heart, the Blunt and Sully-Buttes community threw their support behind a former teacher, coach and friend.
“That picture up there on the wall, that was probably one of the most… (amazing) things that touched me. They rounded up every kid and every staff member in that school and took that picture. It just blows you away,” said Pool.
Team Approach to Heart Care
“I was just one of probably close to a hundred providers, nurses, techs that were involved in his care. And so even though I did the procedure, I couldn't do it without everyone else in the room. Randy has been great in thanking everyone that was involved and it was a pleasure to take care of him,” said Dr. Fleming.
“In November, I had a doctor's appointment for a follow-up with Dr. Fleming and he walked into the room and stuck his hand out and I said, nope, no handshakes, dude. And I squeezed him with a hug like I've never hugged anybody. I said, you gave me my life back,” said Pool.
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