体育老师的肺炎诊断让医生发现了潜在的致命心脏问题

At 41, David Pinto saw a doctor for the first time in a dozen years. Before then, the high school health and PE teacher and coach from Paterson, New Jersey, hadn't felt like he needed to.

毕竟，他一生都是举重运动员，很少感到恶心. 遇到这种情况时，他会吃点感冒药，或者请一天假，基本上只是“应付一下”."

But this time, a winter cold had settled in Pinto's chest, leaving him with a "horrendous" cough and trouble breathing. Even getting out of bed felt like too much. So finally, at his wife's urging, Pinto visited an internist.

医生听了他的胸部，并给他拍了x光片，确诊为肺炎. 但医生接着说:“你的心脏有过问题吗?" – really made Pinto's breath catch.

In addition to the lung infection, 医生告诉平托他有心脏杂音，需要尽快检查.

After his lungs cleared, Pinto saw a cardiologist. 超声和CT扫描显示先天性心脏缺陷称为二尖瓣主动脉瓣. 而不是通常的三个皮瓣通过主动脉瓣打开和关闭, Pinto's heart had only two; this restricted blood flow to the body and created the murmur.

Worse yet, it had caused an aortic aneurysm, a weak spot where the wall of his heart's main artery bulged. A rupture would be life-threatening.

Pinto was stunned. 在他童年和青少年时期的季前赛中, no one had ever mentioned a heart problem.

"I was completely thrown off," he said.

心脏外科医生说平托的动脉瘤直径约为3厘米. 他建议对它进行监测，等它变大后再进行手术修复.

因此，从2018年初到2020年春天，平托每隔几个月就接受一次核磁共振成像. In the meantime, his cardiologist warned him not to lift anything heavy, overexert himself or hold his breath.

Pinto felt like he had a potential bomb ticking in his chest. 一个挥之不去的想法是:“这东西随时都可能炸开，我可能就死了."

"Every day you're just like, is it getting any bigger? Is it staying the same size? What happens if I lift something heavy? What happens if I hold my breath?" Pinto said. "It was two years of thinking about what-ifs."

最终，在2020年夏天，动脉瘤大到可以进行手术.

But by then, deep into the COVID-19 pandemic, few people wanted to be anywhere near a hospital, let alone have open-heart surgery.

And COVID had just hit Pinto's family hard. Three months before his surgery, his father, a longtime volunteer firefighter also named David Pinto, died of complications from the virus in the same hospital.

Still, he did what had to be done.

外科医生更换了平托畸形的心脏瓣膜，并修复了动脉瘤所在的区域.

Leaving the hospital, 平托哀悼他的父亲，担心他可能会把新冠病毒带回家给他的妻子, Yvette, their then-4-year-old son, David, and his in-laws. So, 他决定在一个和他一样悲痛万分的人的家里康复:他刚刚丧偶的母亲, Barbara Pinto.

For two weeks, his mother, who lives in a nearby town, cooked for him, took him to medical appointments and accompanied him on slow walks. 与此同时，平托几乎从楼上的卧室里回到了教学岗位.

芭芭拉在失去丈夫后这么快就迎来了她的“孩子”, whom she'd begun dating at 14.

她说:“早上起来有个目标真好。. "At that point, I needed somebody here."

Now, four years later, Pinto said he feels well. He sees his cardiologist every six months, takes cholesterol- and blood pressure-lowering medication, and remains careful not to lift anything heavy.

He's still grateful he saw a doctor for the pneumonia. If he hadn't, the aneurysm might not have been detected in time. 这就是为什么他敦促其他男性至少每年为家人做一次体检, if not for themselves.

“如果不是因为肺炎，现在的情况可能会有所不同，”平托说. "My son could potentially be without a father. ... I got really, really lucky."

Stories From the Heart 记录心脏病和中风幸存者、护理人员和倡导者的鼓舞人心的旅程.