INDIANAPOLIS -
The emphasis of Checkup 13 this month is your heart health.
It's something that was never on Mike Johnson's radar. He never felt sick, didn't have chest pains, but when his wife had a heart scan, on a lark, he got one too. She got a perfect score but Mike had blockages in every artery in his heart.
"She was let go and they escorted me up to the cardiologist immediately," Johnson said.
Some of Johnson's arteries were 100 percent blocked, others were 80-90 percent blocked.
"Just every single one of his arteries is just this big chunk of rock hard calcium, that is constricting the artery, in his case. Throughout every single artery he has, he just has rocks," said St. Vincent cardiologist Dr. Duncan Brindley. "He is very lucky. Had he not gotten care, I think he would have just died a sudden cardiac death and it would have been a very tragic statistic."
The blockages stop blood flow and proper heart function.
"I didn't think anything was wrong with me," Johnson said.
His doctors ordered surgery and he is now recovering from a quadruple bypass operation.
"It was an eye opener. Basically, it just goes to show that you never know what you have going on inside your body, basically," the 57-year-old said.
The heart scan scores patients and flags patients with a score of 400 for follow up. Johnson's score was 8113.
"He had the highest calcium score of anyone that I have personally seen," Brindley said. "I'm not very aware of other people who have a higher calcium score that are still walking on this earth."
The heart scan does emit radiation, so it's recommended for at-risk patients only.
"For Mike, it saved his life and so, as we've talked about, if you have risk factors for heart disease and you are concerned, then it is a reasonable test. But if you don't have risk factors and you are low risk don't get it," said Brindley.
The risk factors for heart disease include a family history, a history of stroke or other vascular disease, or if you smoke, have abnormal cholesterol levels, diabetes, obesity or high blood pressure. If you have one or more of these risk factors, you may want to get a heart scan.
Johnson now has a new exercise routine, walking 3-4 miles every morning.
"I can go out and walk an hour, an hour-fifteen to 20 minutes and come back and not feel like I've lost any energy whatsoever," he said.
He had high blood pressure and is grateful that he learned of his risk while there was still time to fix it.
"Now I feel like I could walk forever," Johnson said.
Checkup 13 is offering a discounted $49 heart scan at the following facilities:
Hendricks Regional Health
Hancock Regional Hospital
Henry County Hospital
Saint John's Health System
St.Joseph Hospital
St.Vincent Carmel Hospital
St.Vincent Clay Hospital
St.Vincent Heart Center of Indiana
St.Vincent Indianapolis Hospital
St.Vincent Jennings Hospital
St.Vincent Medical Center Northeast
St.Vincent Williamsport Hospital
To qualify for the scan, you must be 40 years old, have at least one risk factor and must not have had a scan within the past five years.
The hotline is open until 7 p.m. Monday night. The phone number is 1-866-U-CHECK-13 (1-866-824-3251). You can also register online at WTHR.com until midnight Monday (August 13).
Mike Johnson's heart scan showed several severe blockages in his heart.
Those over 40 with risk factors are recommended to get a heart scan.
The scan shows blockages in arteries leading to the heart.
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