Jon Soble, MD

Jon Soble, MD, is both an experienced urologist at Marian Regional Medical Center and a cardiac patient who knows firsthand how the expertly trained health care professionals of Marian’s Heart Center have both the skill to heal and passion to care. The below message is an excerpt from Dr. Soble’s inspirational testimonial he shared with more than 400 attendees at Marian’s 2014 Annual Dinner on August 24, 2014.

It’s a great pleasure to be here, quite literally. Seven months ago today, January 24, 2014, for me was a most unusual day. A confluence of events came together that day, both good and bad, but none of which were supposed to have taken place.
You see, on January 24, 2014, I died.

I always do surgeries at Marian on Wednesdays. However, this particular day was a Friday and I was in the operating room. I almost never schedule surgery in the medical center on Fridays. I should have been seeing patients in my office that day, and if I was, I’d still be dead.

One minute I was in the operating room preparing for surgery, and the next I was down on the cold floor, dead as a doorknob, in full cardiac arrest.
I was found on the floor by one of Marian’s excellent surgical technicians, Gerard Gaudet. He kept me alive with chest compressions and called out a code. He also cracked a few ribs while he was at it, but I’m not complaining.

The Rapid Response Team was fortunately very rapid and very responsive. I was shocked twice which got my heart started. I was then rushed to the Heart Center’s cardiac catheterization laboratory where cardiologists Dr. Mark Ginkel and Dr. Alex Harrison found the short yet complete blockage in one of my heart’s arteries. They dilated it and stented it open.

Again, I was incredibly lucky. There’s a reason the type of heart attack I experienced is called a ‘widow maker,’ but because of the exceptional skills, the timing, and technology of Marian’s Heart Center and its team members, I was able to walk out of the medical center after just a few days. In fact, I returned to my practice the following week and was back to the operating room just one week after that.

My definition of a miracle is an event that occurs where the need is incredibly great, but the likelihood of the event is just as incredibly rare. And I profess to you that at Marian’s Heart Center they perform miracles like this every day. I stand before you today to put the needs of Marian’s Heart Center Expansion front and center and to help give those needs a face and name. Luck favors the prepared. This aging population is expanding and we need this expansion so Marian’s Heart Center will always be equipped to perform miracles.