INDIANAPOLIS — At 64, Kent Hoover is active.
The Anderson man and his son travel all around Indiana and, if he ever felt a bit off, he just attributed it to aging.
“I judge my health by being in my 60s, and being very active and doing work that is very physically demanding for all ages,” he said. “And I thought, well, if I can do that. I'm fine.”
But that changed when his legs swelled and he went to the emergency room. There, doctors detected several blood clots and a life-threatening abdominal aortic aneurysm.
“It's like a balloon, you know,” Dr. George Cheng said, describing an aneurysm. “So if you put more air into the balloon or water into the balloon, the balloon will continue to get bigger and bigger and bigger."
Cheng is a vascular surgeon at Ascension St. Vincent. He said aneurysms usually present with an acute onset of abdominal pain or back pain. "And when we scan them, they're high blood pressure-strapped and they're basically ruptured," he said.
“If it did erupt or rupture,” Hoover said, “life expectancy was just a couple seconds. At that point, there was just nothing you are going to be able to do.”
Hoover was lucky. He had surgery and now is preparing to celebrate the holidays with this eight grandchildren and meet his ninth in the new year.
He was unaware of this - a tri-vascular screening - and that his family and smoking history made him an ideal candidate.
Technicians use an ultrasound device to check how your blood is flowing through your neck, stomach and legs.
The screening costs $79 and takes about 15 minutes.
“There was no indication that I had something wrong. That was scary, to just have something that big to show up,” Hoover said.
Now his sons have had the screening. And if you are at risk, he encourages you to get one, too.
If you are at least 55 years old and have at least two of the risk factors, you may register for a tri-vascular screening at one of these Ascension St. Vincent locations:
LOCATIONS:
- Indianapolis - 8433 Harcourt Road Suite 100, Indianapolis IN 46260
- Carmel (St. Vincent Heart Center) - 10590 N Meridian Street Suite 105, Indianapolis, IN 46290
- Anderson - 141 W 22nd Street Suite 214 Anderson, IN
- Hendricks - 9166 E US Highway 36, Avon, IN 46123
- Kokomo - 313 S. Berkley Road Suite 120 Kokomo, IN 46901
TO QUALIFY:
Screening participants must be 55 yearsold or older with two or more of the following risk factors:
- High Blood Pressure
- High Cholesterol
- Obesity
- Smoking (Current or Past)
- Diabetes
- Heart Disease
- Family History of arterial disease, stroke, abdominal aortic aneurysm or peripheral artery disease
To register, call the hotline at 1-866 U-CHECK-13 or 866-824-3251 or register online before midnight Sunday.