Back in the saddle again

Some of the staff that provided timely assistance to Shrimplin during a heart attack he suffered while exercising join McLemore and Shrimplin -- Pat Willis and Kaye Reasoner. --Photos by Steve Moyer/Daily Mail

Marion Shrimplin just celebrated his birthday, or something akin to a birthday; the fifth anniversary of his heart attack and the quick thinking and acting staff at the cardiac rehab department at the Nevada Regional Medical Center's action in stabilizing him for transport to St. John's hospital in Joplin. Five years ago, Shrimplin was in the department doing some unsupervised exercise on a stationary bicycle when the attack struck him.

"It was upstairs and the pillars up there are really thick," Shrimplin said. "I was looking at one of them and it got real fuzzy."

A frequent exerciser with Shrimplin, Wanda Abele, was next to him on another machine. She and Shrimplin had the same Tuesday/Thursday exercise schedule. Abele was peddling on an exercise bike for his anniversary as well.

"He was working away and he just fell off the bicycle with a thud," Abele said. "They came over and started working on him right on the floor."

Cardiac rehab nurse Kelli McLemore stands by as Marion Shrimplin of Nevada takes a spin on the stationary cycle at Nevada Regional Medical Center.

Shrimplin has some hazy memories of the care he received but his sharpest memories aren't about his heart or the care he received, but a slightly more embarrassing subject, his bladder. After getting stabilized Shrimplin was prepared to be life-flighted to Joplin and that's when the other problem started.

"They had me sitting up and I could see out of the helicopter," Shrimplin said. "I remember seeing us go over Jasper. I started getting uncomfortable and they asked me if I was all right and I said I was. A little while later it was beginning to really get to me and they asked if I was sure I was all right. I said I was but I needed to pee. They said they didn't have a urinal on board but that they would get me one as soon as we were down. We landed and they didn't come out and get me for awhile so I said something and they yelled out to the ER "Bring us a urinal up here." All of the west side of Joplin knew I needed to pee."

Two days after being taken by air ambulance to Joplin doctors at St. John's inserted a defibrillator/pacemaker into his chest and four weeks later he was back on the exercise bike -- but worker Kaye Reasoner was beside him and his heart was monitored.

"It was like falling off a horse," Shrimplin said. "I figured I had to get back on then or I never would."