During American Heart Month, Arkansas Heart Hospital offers a Keep the Beat screening for only $49 (regularly $99). Read how our comprehensive heart screening gave one woman peace of mind for herself, and see why she believes Keep the Beat saved the lives of her dad and father-in-law in the same week.

Recent post written by Gennifer Jackson

Dear friends, PLEASE READ though this will be long…

This has been an unbelievably trying week and my nerves and emotions are frayed. A few months ago, I had some funky things going on and my doctor recommended I do Arkansas Heart Hospital’s “Keep the Beat” heart screening. It’s a series of tests, that take about an hour and are not invasive, that give you a sense of your heart health and identify any immediate concerns. I was/am fine.

I told my family about it and Dave’s parents. My dad signed up, and I am so very thankful for this amazing, lifesaving program. They identified several severe blockages (75-95%) in multiple arteries in Dave’s dad’s heart and scheduled a quadruple bypass.

My dad went in last week and they immediately went into hyper mode scheduling appointments. They wanted to see him the next day, but he wouldn’t let them since I was traveling.

He had a heart catheter test at the Arkansas Heart Hospital clinic Tuesday, and several issues were identified.

Dad had multiple blockages but there was one so severe the doctor said, “This is a widow-maker.” He was shocked Dad hadn’t already had a severe, if not fatal, heart attack.

There was no going home. There was no ‘we’ll schedule this for X date.’ The doctor came in and said, “You have a bed ready across the street and surgery will be shortly.”

They weighed the options of bypass or stents and opted for the stents considering all of his recent surgeries. They inserted four stents and everyone was telling me how lucky we are. He needs more but we’ll cross that bridge later. We aren’t out of the woods yet, but we’re getting there.

Yesterday my father-in-law had his quadruple bypass. In surgery they also found a severe arterial aneurysm, which they were able to repair.

Today I am hopping between hospital floors with my dad on one end and my father-in-law on the other end, and I’m so very happy to be doing so. These two men mean the world to me! If it wasn’t for the Keep the Beat program at Arkansas Heart Hospital, we would have very likely had two funerals very close together. Neither man had really given it much thought and neither had a clue of the severity of their heart conditions.

Please check into the program for yourself or your loved one. It’s $99, but I think it’s invaluable. This Keep the Beat screening ABSOLUTELY saves lives!

I am so very thankful to the team of professionals here at the Arkansas Heart Hospital and for this lifesaving program! I cannot express enough gratitude. Thank you for saving my daddy and Dave’s dad! The race is on to see which man will be able to walk to the other’s room first!

Throughout February, American Heart Month, Keep the Beat screenings can be purchased for a discounted price of $49. Click here to purchase your Keep the Beat screening today.