October 21, 2014, ST. LOUIS - Cyndi Johnson celebrated her 36th birthday with colleagues today, but not in the way one would expect. Johnson was celebrating from her hospital bed in the cardiac unit at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital, where she also is a staff nurse in the cardiothoracic ICU.
“I was fortunate to have nurses I know take care of me,” she says. “As a person being operated on, you can feel vulnerable. But the team here is so well prepared and I cannot express my gratitude to them enough.”
Johnson was in the hospital after surgery to treat an open tricuspid valve, a cardiac issue she has lived with for years. She had surgery when she was 21 for an atrial septal defect and knew over the past few months surgery would be in her future again.
“Symptoms had progressed to where it affected my quality of life,” she says.
After an echocardiogram showed the open valve, she scheduled an appointment with her colleague Richard Lee, MD, co-director of the Center for Comprehensive Cardiovascular Care (C4) at SLU Hospital.
“Cyndi is a great ICU nurse,” says Dr. Lee, who is also a SLUCare physician. “We say we treat people like family and this is a perfect example. Often times, the people we treat are our family.”
She had surgery last Friday with Dr. Lee, Dawn Hui, MD, and members of the SLU Hospital surgery team. She went home today — her birthday — after a five day hospital stay.
“Dr. Lee and his team and all of the nurses who took care of me were so thorough in work that needed to be done,” says Johnson. “They made sure nothing in my care was overlooked.”
For more information about the Center for Comprehensive Cardiovascular Care (C4) at Saint Louis University Hospital, visit www.sluheart.com.
