Henry Bowman and Monika Bowman

00:03 And Monika Bowman, my age is 70 today's date is April 12th, 2019. We are in Cookeville, Tennessee, and I'm talking with my spouse and I'm Henry Bowman age. 72 today's date is April 12th, 2019 in Cookeville, Tennessee, and I'm with my spouse.

00:29 Well here today to talk about primarily about my incident which happened August 28th, August 27th. 1982. Getting confused 2008. I got up that morning to do my usual morning exercise. I was out walking. I came into that. I begin feel suddenly very tired.

00:55 And so I cut my walk short and we I came back into the house and I told Monica I wasn't feeling very well and I didn't know what was wrong, but I was not having the typical heart attack symptoms. I was just feeling tired and just worn out then I went in to take a shower to get ready to go to work and I came out of the shower. My head was sweating.

01:21 And that was the time Monica got on to it. She said you got something seriously wrong. What do you want to do? I said well maybe you can just take me to the hospital. She worked at the local hospital and she said she had the good sense to say. No. I'm going to call EMS which she did and EMS workers got there in about 6 minutes, which is remarkable and I got up and I walked out into the ambulance my on my own lay down on the on the card. Just taking a problem.

02:00 And then one of my neighbors came over who happens to be a nurse.

02:07 And she later told that I look pretty bad. But anyway, we were in the ambulance and they took off as they did to they did an EKG on me and Monika told me later that she was trying to get the technician to say did it look bad or whatever. He was very young hemming and hawing about he didn't have much to say and later on we found out he actually take A2 EKGs because the first one he couldn't believe it was so unusual. So anyway, I went on the hospital and he's an even as we rode over there. I was just lying there very calmly. I'm I'm sure they had me doped up by that time.

02:53 But watching the tree trying to figure out what street they're taking that sort of thing and then we drove up to the hospital and I passed out and that's the last thing I remember for 12 hours then Monica took so I took over and so I was registering him and one of the people I worked at this hospital. I was a social service worker in one of the people that I knew came to let me know that the doctor wanted me to know that he'd had to be resuscitated and then they came back and said that he'd had to have a he was on a ventilator. So things were not going well and I was there alone but in any event, it wasn't long before people came to me. They kept telling me that the doctor was going to come to tell me what was going on, but he didn't because he was actually very busy saving his life at that moment, but

03:53 They took him up to have a cardiac cath done. And so I went along I went and there was a very small waiting area but people from across the hospital came to be with me. And so at one point the the doctor came did finally come out and he asked me some quick questions. Did he have diabetes? No, did he have any kinds of heart disease? And then the answer was no and so then then later the doctor came again, and he told me then that they were having to resuscitate him every 3 seconds. They said that he he would they would resuscitate him. He would come back and then he go out again and 3 seconds and they were doing this continually.

04:45 And so I asked the doctor is he going to die and he said we're trying to stabilize him so that he can have surgery in a little bit later on. I heard them page over the hospital paging system for the cardiac surgeon and I worked at this hospital and had work there a very long time and I knew that that was something that just was not done. I just didn't they they did not routinely at all page the cardiac position to come to cardiac cath lab they did it twice. I didn't hear it the first time but all the people in the room who were with me heard it and then I heard it the second time.

05:27 So the doctor had said we're trying to stabilize him. Well, they never did stabilize him. They did bring him out of the cardiac cath area and they said that I could come see him and I did and there were he was lying there on the gurney and there were people all the way around this Gurney and the the main doctor was pumping on his chest though. It wasn't that he was ever ever stabilized. He just that but they took him down to surgery anyhow, and so this went on for several hours and toward the end of the day friend of mine came back to let me know that he had done that he had done well in them and they were finishing up the surgery will then another nurse came to say well that wasn't exactly true. So even if all this it started before 7 in the morning, and this was now

06:26 3:30 or 4 in the afternoon and they sell the nurse said well there still were some issues. But in fact he did he did finally make it through but they had to resuscitate him through throughout the day at that time. I had heard that maybe they had resuscitated him as many as 30 times which is just unheard of but I didn't know that for a fact friends had come Henry's family had come they lived about a hundred miles away and I learned later that.

07:02 That my friends to call them. Tell them to bring funeral clothes.

07:11 And I did but they didn't have to use them. So anyhow, Henry came through the surgery.

07:18 And then that night he within the cardiovascular ICU. It wasn't visiting hours, but there's some advantage to having worked at the place because they they let us and my brother had come with my mother who was in early Alzheimer's and his wife my brother's wife. And so we asked if we could come in and see him and they did of course I was coming in and so the nurse who was working was a nurse that I knew from day shift, but he happened to be working nights that night. And so if that was very comforting to me that that there was someone there that I knew it so he let us come in and he told me to tell Henry to move his

08:08 But and I did and Henry did.

08:13 And then he said tell him to squeeze your hand and I did and Henry did not remember that I was thinking that you know, you've been resuscitated maybe 30 times. So there was there was a huge question in my mind about whether your mind was still with us.

08:33 But that was the first indication that you understood and and could could respond.

08:41 So let's stop here and talk about Rumpole of the Bailey for a minute. You want to tell that part of the story station, I broadcast that involve this British Barrister who had a piece of a curmudgeon the character who had a very overbearing wife called Helga Helga. Anyway, he called her she-who-must-be-obeyed. So I started calling Monica that many years before before all this happened and it turned out to be appropriate of the current circumstances. She's the one that called them amulets and I had to go when she did that.

09:32 Yeah, so he's Henry's always called me she-who-must-be-obeyed or for a very long time. He even bought me a sweatshirt that said that on it one time. So the first time I was she-who-must-be-obeyed was that morning when he said you can take me in the car and and I did not even discuss it with him. It was just a matter know we're going to call EMS and that was fortunate because before he ever left our driveway, he already had oxygen. So he was never without oxygen. They also had given him morphine which helps to

10:08 Oops, I guess. I like the veins and they given other medicine so so that he was receiving treatment before he ever left our driveway. And and the important thing was that he he was never without oxygen so that that was that and then when when we got to see him that night and he squeezed my hand and he he shook his to shook his foot.

10:37 Do you remember what you said about that later and later, you said?

10:43 Will always do what you tell me to do. So, why would I not have done that van? So I was still she-who-must-be-obeyed. I told him to squeeze my hand and he did squeeze my hand and

10:56 He'll can you tell Henry how that felt when you felt him, please your hair. Well, it was just such a relief but that it looked like he was he was there that his name is a very smart person. He's an economist and and just is a very smart person and

11:16 And during the day, you know, I wondered what was going to happen here in and what's going to happen to his mind. And is he going to be with us? So that was our first into get my first indication that that he was he was there.

11:32 Well, when she asked that I said who wouldn't be able to squeeze your hand is broken where what was going on only only just come from was that thing they stick in your mouth that what you call that that point.

12:00 And work out very well. Obviously been over 10 and 1/2 years now.

12:07 Where We Belong

12:11 So the next morning I saw the will first light listless. Let me remind you about this. The cardiac doctor had told me that he would call me about 6:30 the next morning and I did go home. I've not spent the night at home. And then I think actually your sister and and

12:36 Our niece were staying there too. As I recalled though. That was a long time ago. But anyhow, so that next morning. I did not get the call from the doctor. And so that concern me so I waited maybe 15 or 20 minutes past the time. He said he would call me and I called the hospital then and I talked to the nurse who again. I knew he would say it was the same one who taking care of you all night. And and he said you were doing fine and the surgeon actually happened to be there. He got on the phone. He said come on over he's doing fine. So that was just so comforting to know so we got up and got dressed and

13:18 I went to the hospital pretty quickly later on. I saw the one of the cardiologist and he was the one who told me that over the course of that day. You were resuscitated 62 times. He said I knew it was a lot of times he said so I actually looked it up. We learned later that eight of those times. I was just on the the ambulance on their equipment and butt

13:50 The distance from from where you were when you first passed out till where you came into the hospital where does it really just several feet? It was not meant that long but you were already going in and out very very quickly. And then your your doctor told me 62 times.

14:11 So any how you recovered you made it out of the hospital and then one of the next interesting things I think that happened was that we were at home one afternoon. Do you remember they called us from the ambulance service and they said that there was kind of a I don't know if they called it a competition or what it was. But but what they do each their 9 Regional ambulance organizations, I guessed in the state and each of them gets the nominee the free best safes.

14:50 Still have to be living and these are submitted to an independent person in Nashville who doesn't know anything about any of these people and a call back Randy Porter. Who's our who's singing EMS direct here at that time and said, I've got to see this guy.

15:13 So we were invited down to that to that program, you know, they were telling the stories about each of us and they sort of exaggerated a little bit and said I fought him getting into a minute. I really didn't but when I mention the 62 vs resuscitations, you can hear you could hear some gas and then silence cuz these people never heard of such a thing and these were all in your mass workers. So I thought that was kind of an interesting fact and apparently is very unusual. But that banquet was it it was really a wonderful opportunity because they invited the the people who were saved in their family there an immediate family member and they invited all the people from the EMS part of the

16:13 Equation that were involved in your study are involved in your safe in this situation. We called him about maybe they probably was 6:30 in the morning and so is the crew came and so at this banquet there were the dispatchers who were involved and there was there was more than one because shift change was at 7 and then there was one crew that came first and I remember hearing them talk on and on their communication devices so that there was going to be another that they needed to have another crew come so another a second crew came, but all those people were there in Nashville at this banquet. So we got to meet with them and one of the one of the really neat opportunities is that I was able to talk to that emergency to the emergency professional.

17:12 Heal a head ass went when I saw you looking at your EKG. I asked him. How does it look and he was absolutely quiet and then I asked him the second time. Does it look like it's a heart attack and he started kind of fussing not not fussing he would he was having and and and he said well the trace things appear that it might be so at this banquet that night. He said I was looking for anything good on that EKG and there was nothing so they knew we had a right off the bat. They knew how bad you are and how quickly it was necessary for you to to get to the professionals and in a hurry and my service is just phenomenal cuz they are connected end of the hospital. So the folks at the hospital already knew what to expect. They probably already had the cardiac cats team called and ready to go.

18:12 So so that was that was nice and it was nice to meet these people because they were the ones that began that road toward towards saving your life. That's why I remember that well.

18:27 That they were very nice people and I

18:31 Just glad there were there in handy some people like living out in the country. We're so glad that we did not listen out in the country will we live in town? And we were close to the hospital in and I was very pleased about that little bit of rough side of this story has several years after that or before that rather the there was a move on a front to sell this hospital and this hospital is locally owned by our City municipal Costco, which is very unusual these days, but

19:10 That that affect city council voted to the Senate but there's a referendum brought forth and the people voted it down just very narrow on me. And that was like, I can't help thinking. I just what would have happened had we sold this hospital. I think we might just turned into feet or hospital for a larger group that my dad bought it. So I was worried. I feel very grateful for that. So that that turned out very well for me in this case and we haven't heart program another other programs to but but certainly the cardiac program. I think it's if they had been unable to treat you there and you had to go 90 miles to Nashville.

19:57 I don't believe you would have survived. No, so, you know 20 miles out of town was good. They reinvest there are names into the hospital and have a wonderful cardiac program even now so they they saved your life.

20:24 How's it's not profit-driven it? It's not it's a community-owned hospital. It is not profit-driven. They certainly need to make enough to keep the keep the doors open.

20:39 But extra, you know where the extra fancy rat you're the economist the money goes back into the hospital for additional Services send and to continue to update our equipment at all.

21:02 Oh, absolutely Williams.

21:06 I'm sorry, that is very nice that we have people employed in the hospital who are local and from from other counties in the region. This is a relatively poor area for part of the state of Tennessee. And as for what I specialize in they

21:25 We have many people commute in here from other County to work think the hospital now has about 2,300 employees, which is quite large for a city the size and we are the whole city cook bone has about 33,000 people. So we're very lucky to have that here.

21:47 When we think about our friends and neighbors, you know, the fact that I had worn at the that I have to have worked at the hospital. It was not long before that little waiting room that I was in was completely full of people. I think the word got around the hospital that time I was leaving without a husband that day. But lo and behold you you continue to do your part that they continue to resuscitate you but you were doing your part because you kept coming back even when you know, your body was saying, nope. This is it but clearly wasn't your time yet. So what do you think Henry about that? This is 10 and 1/2. We're going on 11 years later. What do you attribute your continued Health good health to real and what I think is an excellent cardiac rehab program here.

22:39 For this for this community and I've been very faithful about attending that I go there five days a week workout for about 45 or 50 minutes every morning about 6 in the morning. You you point 6 to 6:15 and and the Personnel they are so nice and it just makes it easy there in there like friends now, so I don't have much trouble getting up to do it. So, it's me. It's worked out very well for me.

23:13 Yeah, I've been impressed with how well you've done and when you go you don't you actually work at it pretty hard. You did sustain damage on your heart website would be certainly understandable given that you are resuscitated 62, * but

23:32 But I think the reason that you're doing as well as you have is that you exercise so Faithfully.

23:38 They're probably other things we could do like eating bad. We don't do that as well. But the cardiac rehab program allows people even after the time that their insurance has stopped to continue to pay to participate in it and and

24:03 You've been very faithful with doing that. I guess the only times you've missed have been the very few times you've been sick or if we've been on vacation. So that's that's been nice.

24:16 Is there anything else about this that we wanted to kind of keep a record of?

24:27 First thing that you thought when you woke up.

24:30 Well, actually when I first woke up, I thought what is this thing in my mouth?

24:34 Well, I've got this I probably shouldn't say this off my wife across there. Then I saw my mother-in-law.

24:54 That's a joke, I could ask for better treatment and all this sort of raises the question of what are small communities doing for hospitals these days. We just had one recently closed in a nearby County county. That only has about 7,000 people in the whole County but and they had 250 people employed up there.

25:27 And it's a it's a big loss. It's a big blow to like that little community and where we seen rural hospitals all across Tennessee going out of business for various reasons Medicare reimbursement and whatever our Medicaid and it's it's just kind of a depressing situation a lot of ways and I'm just glad I live near this one.

25:57 Well, I think you've done very well through the years you continue to exercise we were active you don't come home and just sit and not do anything or still working a couple of hours 5 days a week and that's that's a good thing I think for you and for the community because you still have you still have numbers to give people you still got economic numbers that people need and want I'm working with a lot of people. Chambers, Northeast Mall Chambers. You have no resources in or not particularly statistically you informed and I try to keep these people off today on basic statistics about there. We also do plans and Grant and Grant work for these communities and all that all those gentlemen whilst some for statistical analysis of data and that's what I do and I like doing that kind of thing. So I'm glad to do that even if my

26:55 Advanced age for retirement. I still hang in there and gives me something to do you remember about she-who-must-be-obeyed if you got somebody who looks like there's even the smallest chance that they're having heart problems. Don't let them talk you into taking them in the car call 911 you must be she-who-must-be-obeyed so that they will have a chance to live and have a class classical symptoms. No elephant on the chest no pain in the arm, none of that stuff that one normally associate with male heart attack. So

27:44 I'm just lucky that she who must be over called a few. Let's go into the ER and have butter.

27:58 Outback just was not the case.

28:12 And we've had 10 and 1/2 years as of right now that

28:16 That I didn't think we would have heard that day. If you had told me that you would still be alive and two and a half years and I wouldn't have thought that was the case. So I think we're very fortunate that we've had this time. We've had asked what major medical care and you have done your part and I think that's wonderful, but I've gotten here from the EMS workers from the hospital doctors and nurses and and the

28:48 Cardiac rehab program I've been in bed just top-notch as far as I'm concerned.

29:02 Another facet that we talked about a little bit was about the bit about the hospital potentially being sold. I remember that time it did happen many many years ago and several years ago before your event, but that the hospital had been city-owned but like you said the city council did vote to the salad. I'm sure they were looking at all the dollar signs that the various companies were offering because several of the companies that there were there were just several companies that wanted to purchase our Hospital.

29:41 And we had a state senator who got on the side of those of us who did not want to sell the hospital and and he somehow it in the state legislature had it fixed so that the hospital could not be sold without a referendum by the people. And do you remember that part of that referendum fit to getting it on the ballot? They had to be signatures from people who were Cookeville City residents and I remember at the hospital. We we divide those those who wanted to took these petitions so that we could get people to sign them to say that they wanted there to be a vote for whether the hospital would be sold or not and you and I went up and down one street and then another Street and when we did this several nights getting people to sign petitions

30:41 Petitions and most of the people that we that we talked with agreed to sign those petitions saying that we should not sell what are that? We should vote on whether we sell the hospital and so we went through that process and then there was the vote and lo and behold they decided not to sell the hospital but to this day that legislation exists that says that the hospital can't be sold without a referendum. So, I think that's interesting Sonic.

31:18 But just before this referendum came to vote one of the most beloved doctors in this community died and he was a big advocate for supporting in the hospital and keeping it under City control and the vote was so close. I've always suspected. He not died and fighting it would have gone the other way. He was a very much beloved doctor in and he was totally supportive of the hospital and that was that was very helpful. I think.

31:54 When I have one last question for you all have you ever been in a hospital in a big big hospital where you felt the difference between the local being treated at a local hospital and being in a big hospital? We haven't but I can I can talk to that though. So

32:17 No, fortunately neither of us has ever had to be in a big City Hospital somewhere where we were being treated for something that couldn't be handled it at our regional hospital here. But through the years I've worked as the social service worker at our hospital and I would talk to people who had been to Big City hospitals and so often I would hear them say that they thought the carehere was much better you had more of a personal touch from people that you really could see the difference in terms of the kind of care and the quality of care that was provided here. So that that was another indication. I think that we did well to keep her Hospital under local control. Not only that simply the number of people you have.

33:11 Bonner Creek patience is a much larger here than a typical Big City Hospital.

33:25 Is there anything else that you would like to say before we close out?

33:32 I don't know of anything. That's a quick we got everything covered.

33:41 I think that's probably enough.