A Journey To the Garmin Marathon – the Story of Bobby Ballard

Bobby had many angels on his shoulders that day!  The first angel was the nurse who had been
running with
him in the class.  She
immediately recognized what was happening and her nursing instincts took
over.  While others in the class stepped
back and called 9-1-1, the nurse started performing CPR (she would later tell
Bobby that was the first time she ever had to and she was worried that SHE
wouldn’t do it right!)

Within a couple of minutes or so, the ambulance arrived.  While he was on the ground, they used their
mechanical CPR device commonly called the “Thumper” (or “Geezer Squeezer” by
the crew!)  Because of its violent
nature, they don’t like to use it where the public can see it in action, but
they had no choice with Bobby. 
Continuing to work on him, they got him into the ambulance and on the
way to the hospital.  The Thumper was
used on Bobby seven times!  Once at the
hospital, Bobby began to try to move and was sedated.  He would not regain consciousness again for six
more days. 

Concerned for his health, the entire running class followed the ambulance
to the hospital to wait for any news. 
Bobby’s wife, Jane, had been called and met them at the ER.  Jane had no idea how grave the situation was,
having only been told that he had “collapsed”. 
The ER doctor finally came into the waiting room and told the gathering
crowd that, yes, Bobby had suffered a heart attack – and then he told Jane to
gather the family and that Bobby wasn’t going to make it through the night!!!

In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, around 2 am or so, the cardiologist
came to talk to Jane.  “I have one shot
at stabilizing Bobby.  It is high risk,
but I’m willing to take the risk if you are,” he says to Jane, who agrees
because, as she would put it later, it was better than the NO chance she was
told earlier!  Three stents were used to
clear three areas that the cardiologist said were 99%, 96%, and 95%
blocked.  He was very happy with the
procedure and very hopeful for a better outcome in the next few days.

While Bobby remained in an induced coma, he was taken to CVICU with
round-the-clock nurse care.  Over the
next couple of days, Bobby would return to the cath lab several times – the
nurses would later joke that Bobby must have been trying to set a record for
how many times one patient can go to the cath lab!

On Friday morning, following several tests, Bobby was taken to surgery for
a triple bypass.  Along with the
multitudes of monitoring equipment that accompanied Bobby, there were seventeen
different IV bags on four different carts! 
It took a whole crew just to move him! 
By noon, the surgeon was done and very happy with his work and for
Bobby’s prognosis. 

Following a couple of groggy, semi-conscious days, Bobby was fully awake on
Monday morning.  His first question to
Jane was “What happened?”  That’s when he
first heard about his heart attack.  He
had no memory of that Tuesday or running or collapsing.  Working with physical therapists who told him
that he could go home as soon as he could walk up and down the stairs, he
worked relentlessly on walking the halls. 
Wednesday, he tackled the stairs, twice. 
Thursday, he did it again.  Friday
morning, he was released from the hospital – eleven days after the heart attack
that nearly took his life!

The next few weeks, Bobby and Jane returned to walk at the mall until he
was up to walking three miles
 day.  On
May 21, 2011, Bobby WALKED in the Armed Forces 5K with his running class, just
five weeks after triple bypass.  The
entire class walked with Bobby across the finish line!

As Bobby continued to run longer runs, he began using a Garmin Forerunner 610
with a heart monitor to make sure that he didn’t overdo it.  After the first stress test following his
heart attack, he asked his cardiologist if he could train for a half marathon
and, with his blessing, Bobby ran his first half marathon in May 2012.  Following his stress test in December 2012,
Bobby asked if he could train for a full marathon.  Again, it is with his cardiologist’s blessing
that Bobby has been training for the Garmin Marathon in Olathe, April 20th, 2013.

Bobby has run 25 races, including several 5K’s, a few 10K’s, and two half
marathons.  He continues to use his Garmin
Forerunner 610 for all of his training runs, although he doesn’t use the heart
monitor any longer.  The Garmin Marathon
in Olathe will be his first FULL marathon – just two years after the heart
attack that nearly killed him!  This will
probably be Bobby’s only full marathon, but this is one of his “bucket list”
items that he can cross off the list!

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