By Andrea Nagel
When your
heart is strong enough to get you through
140.6 miles of running, biking and swimming, a
heart attack is the last thing you expect to experience.
Despite his stellar cardiovascular health, that’s exactly
what happened to Joe Quercio, proving that cardiac
arrest really can happen to anyone.
“There were no real warning signs,” Joe recalled of
the weeks leading up to his cardiac event. “I woke up
with massive chest pain and shortness of breath. I just
tried to go back to sleep.”
Once awake, Joe began to feel more unusual symp-
toms. His left arm began to tingle, he started having
what seemed like acid reflux and he generally just
didn’t feel well. Remembering a similar incident a
friend and training partner experienced, Joe fought
his denial and decided it was time to go to Kootenai
Health’s emergency department (ED).
“All the way there I kept thinking, ‘This isn’t sup-
posed to happen to me,’” he said.
Joe said everyone he encountered at the ED was
surprisingly calm.
“When you check in to the ED saying you think
you may be having a heart attack, you expect to hear
alarms and see people rushing to take you back to
surgery. But none of that happened. The fact that
everyone was calm and normal put me at ease.”
Test after test revealed nothing. Joe’s vital signs were
all normal, and he was far from the usual candidate for
a heart attack. The emergency staff even considered
sending him home. Luckily they called in Michael Wil-
liams, M.D., with Heart Clinics Northwest, to come and
further evaluate Joe’s condition.
“All Joe’s tests, including his EKG, came back with
no abnormalities,” Dr. Williams said. “It took longer
than expected to diagnose his heart attack.”
Dr. Williams decided to give Joe a CT scan—a method
Heart of an Ironman
L O C A L AT H L E T E J O E Q U E R C I O I S B A C K I N A C T I O N A F T E R
FA C I N G A M A J O R S E T B A C K—C A R D I A C A R R E S T
The blockage in Joe’s arteries was hard
to break, and at one point he went into
full cardiac arrest.
12
HEART HEALTH
