Portage brothers share wisdom after suffering heart attacks at the same time
Two Portage County brothers who had heart surgery at the same time experienced different outcomes after one was treated early, while the other waited.
Ricky Stackpole of Rootstown and his brother, Clifford "Kip" Stackpole of Ravenna, had heart surgery in the summer of 2023. But while Ricky Stackpole sought treatment relatively quickly for what he thought was indigestion, his younger brother waited days to do so.
While both are doing well now, Kip has had a longer road to recovery.
They're now both spreading the word about heart disease, encouraging friends and family to get checked out.
"They need to know how serious this is," Kip Stackpole said.
Like father, like sons
The brothers say their dad had a heart attack at age 58. Their father, a truck driver like Ricky Stackpole, was in Florida when he began to have symptoms. The brothers say their father was so stubborn that he refused to get medical treatment until he arrived home.
"He said he wasn't going to have it on foreign soil," Ricky said.
Dad survived his bypass surgery, and went on to live into his 70s.
Ricky Stackpole was in New York when he started to experience what he thought was indigestion on a Thursday in July. He thought about his dad, but still decided to return home before seeking treatment. When he arrived home, and still was not feeling well, his wife, Ruth, insisted he go to the hospital. He went to UH Portage Medical Center in Ravenna, which transferred him to the main University Hospitals campus in Cleveland, where he had surgery.
Ricky Stackpole remembers talking to his brother, and noticing Kip Stackpole sounded like he was in bad shape. Kip Stackpole told him he had heartburn, and his brother encouraged him to get checked out.
Kip Stackpole, though, didn't go to the hospital until the following Monday. By then, he had already suffered a heart attack, then had another at the hospital.
While both have had a good outcome, Kip Stackpole's road to recovery was longer. He had two surgeries − one to repair a hole that was found in his heart, and then bypass surgery. While Ricky Stackpole was in the hospital for two weeks, his brother was hospitalized for three months.
Lucky to be alive
The men's cardiologist, Dr. Anjan Gupta, said both men were fortunate. Many patients who don't seek treatment when they begin having heart symptoms don't survive.
"There was a big difference in outcomes," he said. The difference, he said, was that Ricky Stackpole sought help right away, before suffering damage from a heart attack.
"If you're having chest pain, it's always best to come in and get checked out," Gupta said. "Call for help and do not sit at home for three or four days. We need to increase awareness in the community."
In addition to chest pain, symptoms can present as jaw or arm pain, or indigestion. Women, Gupta said, tend to experience atypical symptoms such as nausea or fatigue.
If there's any question, Gupta said, it's always best to get checked out.
Talk of the hospital
The brothers say the hospital staff considered it a big deal to be treating brothers at the same time. They were two rooms apart, and nurses made sure they saw one another.
"They call us the zipper club," Kip Stackpole said.
Kip, who was on a ventilator during part of his hospital stay, doesn't remember much from the early days, except that his fiancée, Catherine Diederich, was constantly by his side. He also remembers being disappointed that his brother went home more than two months before he did.
Kip Stackpole said that when his brother told him his indigestion turned out to be a heart problem, he wondered if that might be his problem, too. But, Kip Stackpole said that because he's younger, he decided that couldn't be the case. He said he also focused on the fact that there were no symptoms before his bout with "heartburn."
"It kind of knocked me for a loop," he said. "I never would have thought that in a million years."
Kip Stackpole is now back to his job as an automobile mechanic.
Ricky Stackpole said his poor diet that came with his life as a truck driver was at least partially to blame for his heart problem. He added that he didn't realize how badly he had been feeling until he recovered from surgery. Now, he said, he feels better than he's felt in a long time.
The brothers have high praise for the cardiology department at University Hospitals, and are trying to persuade other members of the family to get checked out, since doctors have told them their blockages were at least partially related to genetics.
"This really woke up a lot of people in the family," Ricky Stackpole said.
Reporter Diane Smith can be reached at 330-298-1139 or dsmith@recordpub.com.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Portage County brothers share wisdom after their heart attacks
