Days after heart surgery, man attends son's wedding

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By Dustin Lemmon | Saturday, September 22, 2007 11:09 PM CDT | () comments

Richard Brodersen, left, from Sherrard, Ill., smiles with his son, Casey, just before Casey’s wedding in Rock Island. Richard had quadruple bypass surgery on Wednesday and was able to be present for his son's wedding on Saturday. Buy this Photo

Three days after emergency open heart surgery for a quadruple bypass, Richard Brodersen of Sherrard, Ill., was out of the hospital Saturday and attending his son’s wedding in Rock Island.

“There wasn’t any way in the world I thought I was going to make it,” Brodersen said shortly after arriving at the Church of Peace on 12th Street. “Less than 72 hours ago they were sewing me up.”

Saturday afternoon his son, Casey Brodersen, married Jamie Dismer, both natives of the Quad-Cities now living in Des Moines.

Riding in a wheelchair, Brodersen said he felt fine, even though he chose to go without wearing a tuxedo as originally planned.

Brodersen, who had been suffering chest pains, went into Trinity Heart Center Wednesday for an angiogram and was told he needed immediate surgery. One of his first concerns was missing his son’s wedding.

“I asked the doctor can’t we wait until Monday,” Brodersen recalled. “He said ‘I can’t guarantee that you’ll be alive next year for the first anniversary’” if they waited.

Bryan Foy, head of the hospital’s heart surgeon’s team, performed the surgery and was pleased to have Brodersen out of the hospital by Saturday morning. He noted, however, that it’s not uncommon these days for patients of open heart surgery to be up and moving soon after.

“Some people think open heart surgery is a big thing and you’re laid up forever ,when in reality it’s not that big of a thing,” the doctor said. “It’s a different world now than it was.”

Foy said following a routine during the surgery and using narcotics with less of a hangover on the patient’s body shortened the recovery time.

Surgeries like Brodersen’s, in which he had no muscle damage from a heart attack, often carry a less than 1 percent chance of death, Foy added.

Most patients are up and moving in the hospital the night of their surgery, Foy said, adding that many are out of the hospital within four to five days.

“He’s a little ahead of the pace for a guy with his heart condition,” Foy said of Brodersen, noting the 63-year-old was not experiencing much pain.

Before releasing a heart surgery patient doctors will review the heart rate, blood pressure and X-rays, among other things, Foy said.

Brodersen, who lives in Sherrard with his wife, Tootie, said the doctor was optimistic early on that he would be able to attend his son’s wedding. On Thursday, the doctor told him he might be out in time and gave him a wink.

Tootie Brodersen thought her husband was well enough Friday that he could have made it to the wedding if it had been a day earlier.

Still, the last-minute surgery worried Brodersen’s son.

“It was a little bit of a shock,” Casey Brodersen said. “The months leading up to it, all your mind is solely on the wedding. In one fell swoop everything changes. For a while the wedding really

didn’t matter.”

Casey Brodersen found out Friday that his father would be able to make it and was relieved.

“They were going to try to keep it a secret and surprise me,” he said, adding relatives realized he would be comfortable knowing ahead of time.

Richard Brodersen said he was “virtually pain free” following the surgery and was feeling good Saturday afternoon.

“He is beyond satisfied,” Casey Brodersen said of his father. “Everything was so smooth and comfortable.”

Dustin Lemmon can be contacted at (563) 383-2493 or dlemmon@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.