Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery Patient Testimonials

Madonna Agcaoili had no idea she had a serious heart condition. The fist warning sign appeared while she was on a trip. “I found out about my heart condition when, on my vacation in California, I started to get short of breath,” says Madonna. “I went biking and there was nothing wrong. I came home, started to climb up the stairs and I felt like the air was heavy. And I really wasn't short of breath, but I knew something was just different.”...

Mike Peerson of Rogers didn’t know if he’d ever walk again after breaking his back in an accident. But that wasn’t the only challenge he faced. Mike was flown to Washington Regional, the area’s only Level II trauma center, where during an operation to repair his spine he developed a blood clot in his pulmonary artery. Hear how Washington Regional neurosurgery and cardiovascular & thoracic surgery teams worked together to save his life....

No one wants to end up in the hospital – especially during a pandemic – but when veteran Justin Six of Springdale became sick, help couldn’t wait. “He’d been feeling nauseated and woke up vomiting blood,” his wife Brandi explains. She rushed Justin to the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks. Doctors there discovered a virus, one not related to Coronavirus, was responsible for his symptoms. But a CT scan revealed another problem – a dangerous blood clot near Justin’s abdominal aorta. “It was a fluke they found it,” Brandi says. “If it hadn’t been for the virus, they wouldn’t have found the clot.”...