By KEVIN J. DONALDSON
Crossville Life Features Editor

COOKEVILLE-Mistaking heartburn for a heart attack or vice-versa is a common thing. It’s so common, in fact, the American Heart Association devotes a portion of its website to ways you can tell the difference.
Crossville radio personality Andy Vaughn had an experience with that recently. Vaughn followed the Heart Association’s advice – “when in doubt, check it out” – and it’s a good thing he did.
Back in August, Vaughn had an episode that started out as though it might be heartburn, but it turned out to be something much more serious, and staffers at Cookeville Regional Medical Center helped him deal with that.
“On Saturday, I started out having what seemed to be heartburn,” said Vaughn, the news and community service director for radio station WIHG (The Hog – 105.7 FM) in Crossville. “It would bother me for about 10 minutes or so, stop, and then come back later.
“On Sunday, it was worse. By Monday, it was pretty much there all the time, and I tried some over-the-counter heartburn medicine. By Tuesday evening, it was so bad I couldn’t sleep because of it. I was also having some difficulty breathing,” Vaughn said.
“I called my son and told him I was going to the emergency room (in
Crossville),” he said. Tests showed his heart enzymes, proteins that are released into the blood by dying heart muscles, were high. Doctors there determined he had experienced a heart episode.
“They asked me: ‘where do you want to go – Knoxville or Cookeville,'” Vaughn said. “I had heard a lot of good things about Cookeville Regional and their heart program, and it was definitely more convenient for my family, so we went there.
Vaughn was transferred to Cookeville Regional, arriving there at around 4 a.m. on Wednesday, August 19, he said. “I was in surgery about 5 hours later.”

Bypass surgery needed
“Mr. Vaughn was having what we often refer to as stuttering heart pain, and he was catheterized soon after arrival,” said cardiac/thoracic surgeon Dr. Tim Powell of CRMC, who wound up performing three heart bypasses on Vaughn. “A heart balloon pump was used to help pump blood through his heart during the catheterization, where it was determined that bypass surgery was needed.”
Bypass surgery is a procedure that restores blood flow to your heart muscle by diverting the flow of blood around a section of a blocked artery in your heart. Bypass surgery uses a healthy blood vessel taken from elsewhere in the body and connects it to the other arteries in your heart, so blood is bypassed around the diseased or blocked area.
“The bypass surgery went very well with Mr. Vaughn, with good results,” Dr. Powell said. “He had a bit of an irregular heartbeat after his surgery, which is a common thing, but overall everything went well.”
One of Vaughn’s blocked arteries in other circumstances might have been repaired through a stent to open the vessel up, but “where the blockage was, putting a stent in could have been problematic in the long run,” Dr. Powell said.
Vaughn stayed in intensive care for five days following his surgery. “I only remember about half of that,” Vaughn said jokingly, “but the nurses there were just fantastic. They started walking me very short distances the day after my surgery – almost immediately.”
Vaughn was moved to a regular room for another five days during his recovery period.

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“I’ve had absolutely no second thoughts about going to Cookeville,” Vaughn said. “I couldn’t have asked for better care than I got there. Dr. Powell explained everything so thoroughly to me and visited me every day after the surgery.” -Andy Vaughn News Directory, Hog Radio Station _________________________________________________________

It was about a month before life returned to something resembling normal for Vaughn. “I was basically house-ridden for about a month. There was no work, lifting, or even driving until the doctor gave me the go-ahead. On my followup visit to Dr. Powell, he OKed me for work and driving.”
The 30-year radio veteran, who has also worked in Maryland and Ohio, has also been undergoing cardiac rehab in Crossville and has seen a big improvement in his health after his surgery at Cookeville Regional.

“I can tell such difference in how I feel,” I said. “Before my surgery and recovery, I would go to bed, sleep all night and feel like I hadn’t even been to bed.” He’s now eating smaller portions, has taken the salt shaker off the dinner table and exercises a lot more than he did previously.
“People ask me if I was scared about having the surgery,” Vaughn said. “I was never scared the entire time. I just said ‘whatever will be, will be, and we’ll let these experts do what they do.'”
Vaughn did say he had questioned some things during his experience.
“I’ve wondered, ‘how did this happen to me?'” he said. “But I thank God daily that I’m here. He watched over me during this.”

Commitment to care
Dr. Powell is one of the three cardiac/thoracic surgeons at Cookeville Regional Medical Center. Dr. Powell and colleagues perform bypass surgery, aneurysm replacement surgery, and valve replacement or repair surgery.
“The only things we don’t do are pediatric surgeries and heart transplants,” he said.
Heart bypass surgery is the most common cardiac surgery performed at CRMC, Dr. Powell said. Vascular surgeries, involving both peripheral (in the body’s extremities) and carotid (neck) arteries, are also regularly performed by surgeons, along with lung cancer surgeries.
The da Vinci surgical robot system is also used for single bypass surgeries performed on the front of the heart, Dr. Powell said. The da Vinci system is designed to expand the surgeon’s capabilities and offer a state-of-the-art minimally invasive option for major surgery. It’s also used for other surgeries at Cookeville Regional.
“We’re trying to recapture some of the lung cancer patients that are going out of the area to have surgeries performed,” Dr. Powell said. “We can offer those people top-flight care right here in the Upper Cumberland. We have the capability to expand our da Vinci robotic lung surgery, and hope to do that.
“I think what makes the situation unique here at Cookeville is the commitment by the hospital to have three surgeons for patient care,” said Dr. Powell.
“The level of dedication by the hospital to have all the other programs in place to support us is a big key, too,” Dr. Powell said, “along with the commitment to recruit quality people here.
“We have a very good working relationship with the cardiologists, and that’s very important,” he said. “Everyone works well together, and that’s crucial to providing the best care possible.”
For more information on the Heart and Vascular Center at CRMC, call 931-783-2350, or visit the hospital’s website: www.crmchealth.org.