Larry's Journey to Massachusetts General

We wanted to start this blog to help family and friends of Larry Bell follow his progress.

Peg and Larry were traveling on vacation in Boston. They arrived on Friday (5/29/09) and had spent two days seeing the sites with their longtime friends Dan and Jan Krause. On Sunday they were scheduled to begin a week long organized tour of the Boston area. On Sunday morning Larry went out for a short walk to get some breakfast while Peg was finishing getting ready. While on the walk, Larry had a "cardiac event."

We are not sure if the event was a minor heart attack or some other cause but he lost consciousness and apparently went into arrhythmia. After his heart attack in December of 2004, Larry had a defibrillator implanted as a precaution for this type of event. He was taken by ambulance to Massachusetts General Hospital. Between the initial event, the ambulance ride and his initial treatment at the hospital, the device was activated approximately 5 times.

After arriving at the hospital, his heart went back into normal rhythm. Larry was able to tell them where Peg was staying and the police were sent to bring her to the hospital. Larry was taken to the Cath Lab to investigate any damage that might have occurred. The tests indicated that there was not likely any new extensive blockage or damage and Larry was taken to the Cath Lab recovery area.

While in the recovery area, he went into arrhythmia again. They were not able to correct the arrhythmia, and he ultimately went into cardiac arrest. CPR was performed for 25 minutes but was not successful at restarting his heart. Larry was declared dead, and Peg was notified by the doctors that he had passed away. However, shortly after CPR and other efforts were discontinued, Larry “spontaneously” took a couple of breaths and his heart started again. The medical team went back to work and at this point they were able to stabilize him. During this time, Larry's defibrillator fired approximately 15 times.

The medical team has been calling this a miracle! Larry has passed the preliminary neurologic tests that he received enough oxygen during this period. He was sedated, put on a ventilator and also a balloon pump was inserted into his heart to assist in pumping the blood. All of this was done to give his heart a few days rest after all the trauma of the event, arrhythmias and resuscitation efforts.

He also required a balloon pump in 2004, but they were able to slowly bring him off of it and his heart took over to a level of function that gave him a very good quality of life. We are hopeful that with rest and great care, he can make this recovery again.