Help Was Nearby: Athlete, 25, Survives Near-Fatal Aortic Tear

Danny Cruz had always considered himself exceptionally healthy.

The 25-year-old Boynton Beach resident was a lifelong swimmer and former collegiate water polo player. He ran, cycled and spent as much time as possible in the ocean. Before a trip to England this spring, he and his girlfriend were discussing his next athletic challenge: training for an Ironman triathlon.

Then came an unfamiliar pressure in his chest.

“It felt almost like heartburn,” Mr. Cruz recalls. It started after a workout and went away, so he brushed it off. About a week later, while in England, the pain returned more intensely. He went to an emergency department in London, where tests were reassuring and he was told the symptoms might be related to his lungs.

But after returning home to South Florida, the pain returned with terrifying force.

“I felt this really sharp pain,” he says. “It felt like a very intense rupture in my chest.”

Mr. Cruz ended a work call, collapsed to the floor and called his close friend, Jack, who quickly drove him to the emergency department at Bethesda Hospital East, part of Baptist Health.

(Watch now: When Danny Cruz, 25, suffered a near-fatal tear in his aorta, he was lucky help was nearby—at Baptist Health Bethesda Hospital East and Boca Raton Regional Hospital, where Bradley Taylor, M.D., performed life-saving surgery. Video by Alex Calienes, Gort Productions.)

A Race Against Time

There, the emergency team moved swiftly. An EKG, blood tests and a CT angiogram revealed an acute Type A aortic dissection with evidence of rupture.

An aortic dissection occurs when a tear develops in the inner layer of the aorta, the body’s largest artery. Blood can force its way between layers of the vessel wall, compromising circulation to vital organs or causing catastrophic internal bleeding.

“It’s an acute aortic emergency,” says cardiac surgeon Bradley Taylor, M.D., chief medical executive at Christine E. Lynn Heart & Vascular Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, part of Baptist Health, as well as chief of cardiac surgery for the Palm Beach Region and chief of quality and outcomes for Baptist Health Heart & Vascular Care. “An aortic catastrophe is the best way to put it. It’s a life-threatening problem.”

Mr. Cruz’s age made the diagnosis especially unusual. Aortic dissections are more often seen in older adults; when one occurs in someone in their 20s, physicians evaluate for possible inherited conditions that can affect the strength and structure of the aorta.

Cardiac specialists at Bethesda Hospital East helped stabilize Mr. Cruz and arranged his emergency transfer to Boca Raton Regional. Dr. Taylor and the team at Lynn Heart and Vascular Institute were preparing before he arrived.

“They called me to say that they had a young patient who had a life-threatening problem,” Dr. Taylor says. “He was transferred here to Boca Raton Regional, where he was taken directly to the operating room.”


Mr. Cruz remembers the fear of hearing he needed emergency open-heart surgery—and having to confront the possibility that he might not survive.

“They let me know I had to call my family,” he says. “We talked about life insurance, what I had in place and where my savings were.”

He was too overwhelmed to make that call himself. Jack helped communicate with Mr. Cruz’s family in Orlando and get them to the hospital.

Emergency Surgery Designed for a Young Patient

Mr. Cruz arrived at Boca Raton Regional around 10 p.m. and was taken into surgery within minutes.

The priority was to remove the section of the aorta containing the primary tear. Dr. Taylor performed an extended hemiarch repair and a valve-sparing root replacement, preserving Mr. Cruz’s own aortic valve while replacing the damaged portion of his aorta and reconnecting the coronary arteries.

“When I opened up and looked inside his aorta, I could see two areas of concern,” Dr. Taylor says. “One was a relatively healed ulcer that had previously ruptured while he was in London. With the new one, the wall of his aorta was see-through. He was going to rupture that evening—and he would have died.”

For Mr. Cruz, who woke about 10 hours later after surgery, relief was quickly followed by a question that felt nearly as urgent: Would he ever be able to be active again?

“So much of my identity is tied to athletics,” he says. “The first thing that came to mind was, ‘Am I going to be able to be athletic in the future?’”Dr. Taylor’s answer gave him hope.

“He said, ‘Within eight weeks, you’re going to be back to doing everything you love to do,’” Mr. Cruz says. “I didn’t believe him at first, but his confidence gave me hope.”

Recovering with Confidence

Mr. Cruz spent about eight days in the hospital, surrounded by a team of physicians, nurses and other caregivers who helped him begin the long process of recovery.

“I can’t say enough good things about the nurses and doctors,” he says. “It was the darkest moment of my life, and they gave me hope that everything was going to be fine.”

His care continued beyond the hospital through cardiac rehabilitation at the Cornell Institute for Rehabilitation Medicine at Bethesda Hospital East and physical rehabilitation at the Gloria Drummond Physical Rehabilitation Institute.

Mr. Cruz is completing a 36-session cardiac rehabilitation program, attending twice a week. The supervised exercise has helped him regain trust in his body and gradually return to running and playing pickleball. He also completed physical therapy to improve shoulder mobility that was limited after surgery.

“It gives me the confidence to push my limits in an environment where I’m being supervised,” he says. “That confidence has carried over into my own exercise.”

Swimming remains just ahead. He is waiting for his incision to fully heal before returning to the pool and, eventually, the ocean.

Looking Forward—and Staying Vigilant

Today, Dr. Taylor says Mr. Cruz’s repair is strong, his natural valve is functioning well and he has returned to normal life. Still, surviving an aortic dissection means lifelong follow-up. “Mr. Cruz is going to require lifelong surveillance,” Dr. Taylor says. “The remainder of his aorta needs to be surveilled on a yearly basis, as well as the integrity of the operation that we performed.”

Dr. Taylor also encourages people to know their family history, especially if relatives have experienced an aortic aneurysm or dissection.

“Knowing your family history is extremely important because, particularly with aortic disease, it may be passed down through your bloodline,” he says. “If you have a family history of someone in your family having an aneurysm or a dissection, it’s important early on to seek help and get evaluated.”

For Mr. Cruz, recovery is a process of patience and purpose. His immediate goal is to get back into the water. His larger goal has not changed.

“First things first: get back into jogging, then swimming and then getting on the bicycle,” he says. “Within the next two years, I’ll be able to make that Ironman goal a reality.”

 

Click here to learn about the Center for Aortic Disease at Baptist Health Heart & Vascular Care.