Patient takes the right turn for help from WellMed

Heart incident may have had different outcome if patient had gone home

Joseph Gonzales was driving home from his Corpus Christi gym when suddenly he knew something was wrong.

“I suddenly became extremely dizzy; my heart started pounding hard, and I became confused,” Joseph, 71, said. “I tried to check my heart rate, but I couldn’t find my pulse.”

Joseph pulled up to an intersection.

Continuing straight would take him home. A right would lead him to WellMed at Cabaniss Field, where he’d been receiving care for five years. Quickly debating his choices, he decided to go to the clinic, a decision that may have saved his life.

“I walked inside and told the receptionist, ‘I think I’m having a heart attack,’” Joseph said. “She got up and ran to the back to get the nurse.”

The nurse, LVN Mayra Guevara, noticed he didn’t look sick and wasn’t pointing to his heart.

“But then I took his heart rate, and it was 180 (beats per minute),” Guevara said. “That’s when I got Dr. Raglin.”

Dr. Raglin went through the protocol for treating patients having a heart attack, including administering an EKG, medication and calling an ambulance.

Though understandably nervous, Joseph knew he was in good hands. “Dr. Raglin came in and her attitude calmed me right away,” he said. “She said I was having a heart event and told me not to worry about it, that they could reset my heart.”

The ambulance took Joseph to the hospital, where he ended up staying for the weekend. The following Monday, a cardiologist performed several tests to assess Joseph’s heart and arteries.

“He had reviewed a previous stress test, a test his colleague had previously remarked was better than his 22-year-old assistant and better than his own cardiologist,” Joseph said.

He told me the problem should not be happening to me.”

The retired teacher has a family history of heart disease, a fact that prompted him to start taking better care of himself in his mid-30s.

“My father had terrible health issues and then a major stroke, and my uncles died young,” Joseph said. “I needed to work against my DNA.”

Joseph was raised on the West Side of Corpus Christi. Though his high school counselor recommended he attend the local community college, Joseph was recruited by Columbia University for his undergraduate degree and Harvard for his master’s. He worked in human resources in Austin for a time but returned to Corpus after getting burned out.

“I did not like the corporate life,” he said. “All those hours were exhausting, and I longed for a family and a quieter lifestyle.”

Because he wanted to help others, he switched careers and began teaching 6^th grade through high school at an alternative school for troubled students.

“I enjoyed it completely,” the now-retired Gonzales said. “I’m such a dork and a nerd, but they liked me. I was raised in the same neighborhood as they were.”

Joseph recently had a follow-up visit with Dr. Raglin and was given the go-ahead to work out again.

“The problem was an arrhythmia,” Joseph said, referring to what is basically a glitch in the heart’s rhythm. Arrhythmias happen when the heart’s electrical system signals get mixed up and can be caused by heart disease, high blood pressure, thyroid problems or even too much caffeine or stress. Of those causes, Gonzales only has high blood pressure, for which he takes medicine. “The doctors were all very stumped because I’m so healthy,” he said.