VANCOUVER, Wash. – The sudden jolt Tammy O’Neil felt inside her chest this spring wasn’t a frisky “hello” from her unborn baby. It was a vital piece of O’Neil’s body peeling itself apart.
O’Neil had an aortic dissection, a structural failure of the major artery that carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body. It’s a serious medical problem and often goes undiagnosed, which increases its deadly toll.
But in the next few hours, doctors from four different hospital systems teamed up to ensure that the Vancouver woman and her baby survived.
O’Neil wound up in Portland, Ore., at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, where she underwent aortic surgery about 12 hours after her baby was delivered via Caesarean section.
“From what I’ve heard, I’m very lucky,” O’Neil said.
Her cardiac surgeon, Dr. Storm Floten, is no stranger to the combination of medical issues presented by the case, even though “it’s not a common thing,” he said.
“I’ve seen three pregnant people with aortic dissections in 25 years. Most heart surgeons go through their careers without seeing it,” Floten said.
On the other hand, it was a stroke of bad luck that put the 37-year-old O’Neil in jeopardy. Based on recent federal health statistics, women her age should not have to worry about life-threatening aortic disease. About 97 percent of those who die from aortic aneurysm or dissection are 45 or older. Aortic dissection kills two to five times more men than women, according to the American Heart Association.
O’Neil said she knew her age would be a risk factor in her pregnancy, but she had always been healthy. Her only previous hospital visit was the result of a concussion, following a mountain bike spill, in 1999.
In the late stages of pregnancy, O’Neil knew she’d be heading for the hospital eventually. Her due date was June 21, and Danny O’Neil loaded the camper and took his wife to the Oregon coast. It was five weeks before the baby was due, and a chance for a weekend getaway as a couple.
Danny also was looking forward to a chance to unwind after putting in a 70-hour workweek helping his employer, Aaron’s Metal Fab in Portland, wrap up a project.
Then everybody’s plans changed.
“I didn’t know I was having problems until we went to visit his parents in Tillamook, (Ore.),” Tammy said. She was shopping with Danny’s stepmother, Lorrain O’Neil, when something happened.
“I was putting groceries in the car, and I felt a severe pain in my back and chest. I assumed the baby was kicking,” Tammy O’Neil said. “I had a hard time breathing, got really clammy, and then went back to the house.”
Danny said he gave his wife a back rub, and tried to help her find a comfortable position to lie on her side.
When that didn’t help the breathing problems, Danny rushed Tammy to Tillamook County General Hospital. After a couple of hours there, she was taken by ambulance to Southwest Washington Medical Center in Vancouver – while Danny had to stay behind to fill out hospital paperwork.
Thirty minutes after Tammy had left, Danny finally got to leave, too. His dad, also named Danny, loaned his Ford F-350 pickup to his son so O’Neil wouldn’t have to wrestle his heavy camper down the highway.
Even for a veteran street-stock racer, it was a memorable drive through a mountain lightning storm.
Danny arrived at the Vancouver hospital five minutes behind Tammy.
After a CAT scan and ultrasound imaging of Tammy’s heart, doctors at Southwest Washington Medical Center detected signs of trouble.
“Southwest Washington was really good,” Danny O’Neil said. “The doctor said, ‘Here’s the deal: We’re not set up to do this, and we’re transporting you to St. Vincent.’
When Tammy arrived at the Portland medical center, the doctor who initially responded was a Kaiser Permanente cardiologist, Dr. Alison Fulmer, based at St. Vincent.
The teamwork continued as doctors developed a plan for a surgical double-header – a Caesarean section, followed by a repair procedure on the aorta.
Although Payton was born about five weeks ahead of schedule, their daughter is doing fine, the O’Neils said.
Actually, the whole bonding process has been a lot harder on the mother than on the baby.
To repair the failing section of aorta, surgeons had to saw O’Neil’s breastbone in half. When she left the hospital, O’Neil was ordered not to lift anything heaver than 5 pounds, and Payton weighed 5 pounds, 11 ounces at birth.
“I was home, but I couldn’t be a mom,” Tammy said.
The O’Neils won’t be going through this again.
“She is my last child,” Tammy O’Neil said. “If I have any more, it can kill me.”
But at least life is getting closer to normal, and the O’Neils have even been able to catch up with some unfinished business: that weekend camping trip.
They took their camper to a resort near Tenino a couple of weeks ago. Only this time, the O’Neils weren’t a couple; they were a family of three.
“It was a good weekend for us,” Danny said.
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