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<\/p>\nSpokane resident Ben Olson will always remember walking out on the floor of McCarthey Athletic Center in 2019. Surrounded by members of the Gonzaga Bulldogs, he listened to all the voices in the crowd cheering him on, including those of his family and colleagues from Gee Automotive.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish I would’ve looked at my heart rate going out on that floor because I don’t think it mattered what workouts I did \u2014 my heart was fluttering,\u201d Ben says.<\/p>\n
During every Gonzaga men\u2019s home basketball game, the Heart of the Zags program highlights a MultiCare Pulse Heart Institute patient like Ben.<\/p>\n
\u201cKevin James is the announcer who tells your story, and I guess it was more emotional than anything,\u201d Ben recalls. \u201cIt was a very cool experience to have my co-workers, my brother, his wife and my parents there to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Ben, it had been an ordinary morning on January 16, 2019, when his chest suddenly went cold.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was probably 6:30am when I went down to the treadmill to run,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI came back upstairs to let my dog outside. When I came back inside it felt like really cold air on the chest. I sat on the couch, tried to get rid of it, but it wouldn’t go away. It didn’t matter what position I put myself into. I said, \u2018I think I need to go to the hospital. This doesn’t feel right.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben and his wife headed to MultiCare Valley Hospital, where an electrocardiogram (EKG) indicated he was having a heart attack. Ben\u2019s team at Valley immediately rushed him by ambulance to Pulse at MultiCare Deaconess Hospital for an emergency procedure.<\/p>\n
\u201cPictures of the heart arteries were obtained, and we quickly visualized the problem \u2014 a critical narrowing in a major heart artery known as \u2018the widow-maker,\u2019\u201d Ben\u2019s doctor Joel Galloway, MD explains. \u201cA rapid placement of a stent aborted the potentially fatal heart attack.\u201d<\/p>\n
At just 33, Ben had suffered a life-threatening heart attack. But thanks to Dr. Galloway and his expert team at Pulse, the triathlete, husband and father is alive today.<\/p>\n
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