TULSA, Okla. — Doctors say a Tulsa man is lucky to be alive after he went to his primary care office with a sore throat and ended up having a major heart attack.
Stephen Byrne, 65, wasn’t feeling 100 percent when he walked into Oak Street Health, near East Pine Street and North Lewis Avenue, back in March. He had chest pressure, some tightness and was sweating, but his biggest complaint was a terrible sore throat.
Originally, his nurse practitioner, Monica Kirkendoll, thought he was having some kind of respiratory issue. During a vital exam, a nurse noticed his heart was racing. A COVID-19 and flu test were both negative. Then, staff performed an EKG.
“You’re having a heart attack,” Byrne said staff told him as he sat in his primary care office. Not just a heart attack, but a major heart attack. The artery in his heart known as the “widowmaker” was 100 percent blocked.
In less than an hour, he was rushed to the hospital and onto an operating table to have a stent put in his heart.
Byrne told FOX23′s Julia Gorman, “I could feel a rush of blood come up to my face and the sore throat went away, thankfully!”
Despite what most would think of as a terrifying experience, Byrne laughed and said, “I was sort of relieved. At least it’s not cancer of the throat.”
All jokes aside, Kirkendoll said had Byrne stayed home or maybe tried to sleep his sickness off, “he could have died.”
A week later, Byrne had another stent put in. Six weeks ago, a defibrillator was implanted in his chest to help with damage from the heart attack. He said he has given up cigars, cut down on beer and tries to take it easy.
”Looking back, it’s nice to think well I’ve got a bit of a future now,” he said. To read up on major heart attack symptoms, click here.
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