After a 29-year career as a semi-truck driver of hazardous materials, mostly explosives, Larry Wigington looked forward to a “relaxing” retirement. The 67-year old Pittsfield, IL, resident was living that dream until shortly before Christmas 2021.

Larry and his wife of 48 years, Sandy, hosted their three children and seven grandchildren for the family’s annual Christmas get-together the weekend of December 17.  At 2 am on December 18, Larry awoke from a deep sleep.

“I was having really strong pains across the upper part of my chest,” he recalls. 

Having done some carpentry work involving heavy lifting earlier in the day, Larry thought he had pulled a muscle or had a cramp. He got out of bed in hopes of walking off the pain.

“It started to get worse,” Larry said. “Then I got lightheaded and short of breath.”

He woke Sandy and they headed to Illini Community Hospital, five blocks from their home.

“I was a little surprised,” Larry said when tests confirmed he had a heart attack. “I was a little suspicious that it might have been, but I thought, ‘Me? I’m just 67 years old and been minding my own business, why would I be having a heart attack?”

He needed to be transferred for care and the last intensive care unit room available in the region due to COVID was in Hannibal, MO.

With his children and grandchildren home for the holidays, he remembers asking the doctor, “Can’t we do this another day?  I have family in town.”

With a chuckle, the doctor said no and Larry was placed in an ambulance and on his way to Hannibal quickly.

“I was in the room only a few minutes before Dr. Ismail arrived,” Larry recalled.

Imtiaz Ismail, MD, is a board-certified interventional cardiologist with Hannibal Clinic, a member of Blessing Health. Interventional cardiology is the subspecialty of cardiology that uses specialized, catheter-based techniques to diagnose and treat coronary artery disease, vascular disease, structural heart disease, and congenital heart defects.

Larry said he will never forget what Dr. Ismail told him before they headed to the catheterization lab to treat the cause of his heart attack.

“He said, ‘Larry, you pray for me. I pray for you and I pray to God for wisdom.’ I am a spiritual person. When Dr. Ismail told me that I thought, ‘Wow. I’m in good hands here.’ That was a very calming statement.”

In the cath lab, Dr. Ismail placed a stent in one of Larry’s arteries that was 100% blocked and cleared another artery with a balloon that was 90% blocked. Larry was home with his family celebrating Christmas the next day.

“I walked in the house, sat down in the recliner and within 15 minutes we were having a gift exchange.  I still had Christmas with everybody,” he exclaimed.

Larry is finishing has cardiac rehabilitation program at Illini Community Hospital to regain his strength.

“There are a couple of machines there that really kick my rear end,” he admitted. “I didn’t realize having a cardiac issue would zap the energy out of you. It’s just a matter of building it back up.”

While Larry is related by marriage to some staff at Illini, he says those relationships have no bearing on how he feels about the hospital in which he was born.

“If we didn’t have Illini, I would have been in ambulance driving all the way to Jacksonville or Quincy. In that time I could have had a lot worse things going on with me,” Larry surmised.

“It’s a service you just can’t put a price tag on,” he concluded.