SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — February is Heart Health Month, which encourages people to focus on their cardiovascular health. Mercy Hospital kicked off the month with a heart-warming reunion, reuniting a few patients who underwent heart surgery and their medical teams.
Four patients came back to Mercy to share their stories and see the people who saved their lives face to face.
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“We had a lot of friends come and hang out in the room,” said Gary Locke who suffered a heart attack in 2019. “Most people don’t get to see who would come to their funeral and that that was cool and really for me.”
In December of 2019, Locke came home from a run and didn’t feel well. He contacted his wife Kris Locke who was on her way home from work, when she arrived they decided it was time to go to the hospital. Gary Locke collapsed as he was trying to get into the car, that’s when Kris immediately started CPR.
“At that point, it was no longer husband or wife relationship,” Kris Locke said. “It was severed at that moment, and it was a game on, you know, there was no time, you didn’t have a luxury to freak out.”