Jayson Heavner enjoys living life behind the controls of a massive piece of earth-moving equipment. That’s the place where he is in charge.

It’s a completely different story when Jayson is flat on his back in a hospital bed.

“I was scared to death,” the 53-year-old self-employed contractor from Pittsfield said when shortness of breath - that had been worsening for nearly a year - led him to the Blessing Hospital Emergency Center.

“I’ve never had any kind of major surgery or any other health issues in my life. It totally took me off guard,” Jayson said.

It didn’t take his daughter, Alyssa Heavner, off guard however. The Illini Community Hospital nurse is the one who told her dad on a Sunday night in February of this year that, due to his deteriorating symptoms, he needed to get to the Blessing Hospital Emergency Center as soon as possible.

Based on his test results, Jayson was admitted to Blessing where he met John Arnold, MD, Blessing Health cardiothoracic surgeon. He is double board-certified, fellowship trained and a former member of the Cleveland Clinic.


Dr. John Arnold

Dr. Arnold told Jayson his problem was serious and not his fault. It resulted from a family history of heart disease, not lifestyle choices.

“I had never given it a thought in my life,” Jayson said. “But everyone on my dad’s side of the family had heart trouble and the same on my mom’s side.”

“You are a poster child for this surgery,” Dr. Arnold told Jayson. “You’re 100% healthy in every body part, except your heart.”

Jayson required a quintuple bypass, grafting five separate branches of the major arteries feeding the heart. He had surgery on a Friday. On Saturday and Sunday, Jayson was up and walking in Blessing Cardiovascular Unit. On Monday, he went home.

After many months of worsening shortness of breath that he had blamed on a bout with COVID in the summer of 2021, everything changed in a weekend.

“I feel like a brand new man,” Jayson said. “I’m 53 years old and feel better right now than when I was 25. Before surgery, I couldn’t walk more than 300 feet without running out of the breath. Now, I feel as if I could run a marathon. It is amazing.”

“He’s the greatest man I have ever met. Dr. Arnold saved my life. I have the utmost respect for him. Period,” he continued.

In addition to his surgical skills, Dr. Arnold’s straightforward style of communication impressed Jayson.

“I think the most prevalent barrier to people understanding medicine is the language. Medicine has its own language,” Dr. Arnold said. “When we in healthcare succeed as interpreters of the language of medicine, the care that needs to be delivered and the why behind the need becomes very understandable for the majority of people.”

“I was treated with such kindness and respect,” Jayson concluded. “I would not go anywhere else in the world. I could not have had a better experience.”