Leading With Your Heart: Karrie Lumpkin’s Grateful Patient Story

Karrie Lumpkin hadn’t been in a hospital in almost 40 years. Back then it had been to deliver her kids. This time was different.

A few weeks earlier she’d learned she had two blocked arteries and a leaking valve in her heart. Now she was at Mount Carmel East for open-heart surgery. She was
understandably nervous and scared, but her trust and faith in God brought comfort.

“Heart disease is the number one killer of women,” she stated. “I had no idea. All this time I was working out, running, eating well, and thinking I was healthy. But looking back, I had symptoms that I kept ignoring — like so many women do. I wasn’t in pain or anything. I was just extremely tired. I couldn’t sleep at night. Something just wasn’t right.”

Thankfully, she went to see her primary care provider, who referred her to Mount Carmel cardiologist Dr. Amrita Karve. Dr. Karve put her on a portable EKG for 14 days to track her heart activity. That turned up some heart rate irregularities and the leaky valve. A follow-up procedure to pinpoint the valve problem found the blockages, too. That’s when she met with thoracic surgeon Dr. Thomas Salamon, who recommended surgery as the best way to solve both problems and prolong her life.

“I was shocked at first,” Lumpkin said. “But both my doctors were so warm and they made me feel confident that surgery was the way to a better, longer life. Plus I knew God had me.”

She doesn’t remember anything about the procedures, which included two arterial bypasses and a valve replacement, but she remembers everything about the way she was treated both before and afterward.

“Every one of the nurses and techs who came in to help me – Emily, Jen, Bree, and Kai were my team – treated me like I was their mother,” she recalled fondly. “You would have thought I was their only patient! They responded to every call and answered every question. When I had a dry throat, Jen fed me ice chips. Who does that? Bree kept me cleaned up and looking as good as possible. When I wasn’t able to eat the food they’d brought, the dietitian brought me fruit, applesauce, and graham crackers so I wouldn’t go hungry. Every one of them went beyond the call of their job. It’s amazing you can feel that much love from strangers. Just top-tier people. Angels. I’d love to go back and give them all hugs.”

It’s something she might be able to do soon enough. Lumpkin is back to working out twice a week again. Her stamina and energy are back and she’s sleeping a lot more consistently now.

 

“Getting a second chance at life has been a blessing,” she said. “I’m so grateful for what my heart can do and for all the people at Mount Carmel who helped get me back on my feet. I feel like a new me.”

She’s paying that feeling forward, too, having recently signed up to volunteer at Mount Carmel East in the ICU where she got such extraordinary care.

“I may never be able to repay all the people who helped me, but I can help someone else maybe feel less nervous and scared than I did. And that would make me feel even better.”