Tim Meissner, center, relaxes between Dr. David Miller, from left and Ellen Meissner, his wife. Tim recently underwent emergency surgery for an aorta root aneurysm. (Lorri Sughroue/McCook Daily Gazette) [Click to enlarge]

It's the same defect that did claim the life of actor John Ritter.

Tim's story began when the 49-year old man complained to his wife of pain in his leg. He assumed it was a blood clot that had developed as the result of an injury he had while working cattle.

There was also some swelling, but that had been there for a couple of years, he said, so he paid no attention to it.

"I'm one of those people who think something will go away if I just ignore it," he admitted.

But the area had become more tender with some discoloration, leading him to think it was something more serious, like a blood clot.

His wife, Ellen, disagreed. A nurse who works regularly with the cardiologists and technicians from BryanLGH Heart Institute (BHI) of Lincoln, who travel to McCook for clinics, she disputed Tim's self-diagnosis and scheduled him for an appointment in McCook with BHI cardiac technologist, Scott Yackley, who examined Tim's legs.

The tests proved Ellen was right. Tim did not have a blood clot. But before she could say, "I told you so," Scott inquired about the swelling in Tim's legs and told the couple that he wanted them to see BHI cardiologist, Keith Miller, MD, for further examination.

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Yackley's persistence turned out to be the first step in saving Tim's life. Dr. Miller discovered that Tim had the same heart condition that suddenly took the life of Ritter: an aneurysm of the aortic root.

The aorta is the largest artery in the body that carries the blood to the rest of the body. The aneurysm, a blood vessel that had ballooned out, had formed near the valves of the heart that regulate how and when blood is pumped through the body. Because the aneurysm had grown so large, the valves were unable to completely close and blood was leaking out and not being sent to the rest of the body.

Without treatment, the aneurysm would eventually rupture, leading to death, or the persistent leaking valves would strain the heart until the patient dies of congestive heart failure.

Tim was flabbergasted when he heard the news, he recalled. "I've always pushed myself all my life but I never felt I had cardiac issues," he said. In fact, besides the swelling of his legs, there were no symptoms at all of the aneurysm.

The couple traveled to Lincoln on a Friday for further testing and met with cardiothoracic surgeon Ed Raines, MD. They left the meeting with a plan to return in a few days for Tim's surgery, a valve-sparing aortic root repair.

That night, they met family for dinner in Lincoln before retiring to a motel room for the night. As they were getting ready to leave the next morning, Tim called out to Ellen, "Something's happening." Tim was gray and then collapsed on the floor.

Tim said at the time he felt intense pressure in his throat and he couldn't move his arms or legs. As a nurse, Ellen was aware of the seriousness of the situation but as a wife, she was petrified. She called 911 and within minutes, they were back at BryanLGH Medical Center. Tim's aorta was leaking and he was in trouble.

Ellen remembers how the doctor tried to relax the situation for her, "He joked, some people will do anything to get to the head of the surgery schedule. "But if surgery wasn't done immediately, Tim would die. "Most people don't survive this long enough to get to the hospital," Ellen said.

Dr. Raines performed a valve repair instead of a total valve replacement. During the surgery, only the diseased part of the aortic root was replaced and the aortic valve was left intact.

Later, Tim was advised by his doctors that his heart condition was probably genetic, with his father and grandmother both dying from heart aneurysms and that his siblings would need to be tested as well. It has since been discovered that one sister has an enlarged aorta.

Tim is now back at work in McCook, the only reminder of his ordeal a long, reddened scar down his chest.

For him, there must have some divine intervention in the way he bypassed a fatal outcome: what if he had never been diagnosed?

Or collapsed somewhere other than minutes from a hospital with doctors that could perform this life-saving surgery?

"There needed to be at least six miracles for this to happen like it did," Tim said firmly, naming technicians, doctors, nurses and of course, his wife. "There's just no other way to describe it."

Ellen said that her husband was just happy to be alive.

"Now we really know the true meaning of that," she said.