William J. Farr was born in Camden, NJ in May 1944 and graduated from Winthrop High School in 1962. After high school, he attended Florida State University from 1962-1969 & graduated with a BA in geology. William decided to join the armed forces and was commissioned in the USA Corps of Engineers & went on active duty Feb 1970. In total, he spent twenty years in the Army as a topographic engineer. From there, he attended school once more at Iowa State University and earned a Master of Science Engineering in Geodesy & Photogrammetry. Finally, he worked as a civilian in the Intelligence Directorate at the US Army Special Operations Command at Ft Bragg, NC as the Geospatial Intelligence Officer from 1990-2012. As of July 2012, William is retired.
I’ve been a member of the local Mended Hearts, Inc. and an Accredited Visitor for the Cape Fear Valley Hospital since 2012, visiting patients who have had cardiac events, such as stent placement or open heart surgery. I’m now the President of Chapter 400, Mended Hearts of Fayetteville, North Carolina. Why do I do it? Let me explain.
In November of 1995, I was recalled by the government shutdown while on temporary duty in northern Virginia. After landing at the Charlotte airport and quickly moving from one end of the terminal to the other to get on my connecting flight home, I was hit with the classic symptoms of a heart attack: sweating, nausea, severe chest and arm pain. Being a man, I waited for the pain to subside and boarded the plane for home.
At least I had the sense to visit my doctor the next day, who put me in the Cape Fear Valley Hospital for 24 hours. This stay included a stress test, which, according to the attending cardiologist, showed that nothing was wrong. Let me add that heart disease killed both sets of grandparents and both parents; I lost my father when he was only 45.
For four years, I kept having angina, sometimes rather severe, with accompanying nausea when exerting, for example walking up the stairs at work to the parking lot. I quit singing in the choir because of shortness of breath. I went in for a full pulmonary workup, which was perfect. My lungs weren’t the problem. Finally, my family physician said we were going to get the truth about the symptoms, so in December of 1999, I had a nuclear stress test. This showed major damage to the left side of the heart — a fairly major heart attack had occurred.
On January 17, 2000, my cardiologist performed a heart catheterization, and while I was recovering in bed with the 10-pound sandbag on my leg, he told my wife that my heart surgery could not wait, it would be the next day. My left anterior descending artery was 95% occluded, which he expected. What he didn’t expect was the other four significant blockages.
Open heart surgery was performed on January 18 by Dr. Wayne Welsher, who was assisted by Dr. Robert Maughan, who added five bypasses to my heart’s plumbing. While in the Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit (CSICU), I had another minor heart attack, which was treated. I do remember a young lady later appearing at the foot of my bed and telling me, “You probably won’t remember me, but I’ll see you tomorrow!” True to her word, she came into my room in the Cardiac ICU and commanded me to, “Get up! We’re going for a walk.” I protested loudly, asking her if she knew what had just happened to me. The protestations did no good. We still went for a walk!
Recovery was fairly easy. Three months later, I returned to work to comments like, “You have a glow about you!” My response was, “What did I look like before?” I also started Phase 2 Cardiac Rehab at the hospital with a great group of nurses and exercise physiologists. In August of 2000, I joined the Phase 4 or Cardiac Maintenance at the hospital’s HealthPlex facility, where I’ve been ever since, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, at 6:15 a.m. for group exercise followed by my own exercise regimen.
In April of 2004, I started having more angina. Off to Wake Forest Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for another catheterization, with the placement of one stent. Then back into Phase 2 cardiac rehab. In May of 2004, I was having more angina, so back to Wake Forest Baptist for another catheterization and placement of three stents in the right coronary artery. I’d managed to lose two of my bypasses in only four years.
In 2012, I fully retired from 22 years of civilian federal service. A lot of stress was now gone. The Mended Hearts Support Group was formed to support the hospital’s Heart Center. We were a satellite of the Goldsboro, North Carolina, chapter until we gained sufficient membership. I and two other members underwent the Mended Hearts Accredited Visitor training. To be a Mended Hearts member, one must have had a cardiac event of some sort, so I was already fully qualified. I also became a hospital volunteer. Since I was now retired, why not give support to those patients in the hospital who have had cardiac events and were having their hearts “mended,” not cured?
I “work” (if one can call it that) two days a week as a Mended Hearts volunteer, visiting primarily stent patients, but occasionally with open heart patients in the CSICU and patients awaiting stents or a Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG). I firmly believe that telling my story to patients about to have a catheterization or surgery about how great life can be after one brings them some peace to their anxiety or apprehension. In 2019, the cardiac floor charge nurse wrote me up for a Grateful Patient award because of my help with a patient who was told on a Monday he would be having open heart surgery and was extremely anxious. He told the nurse on Tuesday that because of my visit, he was totally at ease and was ready for surgery. That’s what Accredited Visitors do!
I also now volunteer as a member of the hospital’s Auxiliary. It seems that once one starts to volunteer, one just keeps volunteering more. The satisfaction of helping patients through the Auxiliary is greatly rewarding.
Since my November 1995 heart attack, I’ve survived the five bypasses, five more heart attacks, 10 stent placements and now sport an expensive Medtronic defibrillator/pacemaker because of my newly diagnosed congestive heart failure with a lower ejection fraction and cardiac myopathy. The AICD, as my cardiologist told me, was an insurance policy of sorts against sudden cardiac death.
That’s my path to volunteering.
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