COVINGTON, La. — Valentine’s Day will always have a special place in the heart of St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain.
When the holiday came this year, the sheriff was in the midst of a heart issue of his own.
“Whenever (the doctor) told me that my illness required open-heart surgery, he could have simply put his finger on my forehead and I would have fallen,” Strain said.
It’s not unusual to see Strain glad-handing residents in the community, but Thursday was different. A month ago, doctors diagnosed a valve problem in his heart, one that if overlooked or unattended would have killed him.
“I know now that God was not ready for me,” Strain said.
The sheriff said he fought his urge to ignore his symptoms of shortness of breath and chest discomfort, but his wife, a nurse, said she knew something wasn’t right.
“I said, ‘If you let this go, the damage happens. It’s not irreversible. It’s done. There’s no more. You’ll never get it back,’” Lisa Strain said.
Without her insistence, the sheriff said, his heart condition may never have been found and the positive outcome would have never happened.
“The fact (is) that we could have found him dead running one day, because the symptom is sudden death,” Lisa Strain said.
Cardiologist Dr. Pramod Menon said patients with heart issues should not ignore their symptoms.
“Listen to your wife when she tells you to go to the doctor,” Menon said.
The doctor identified an aortic valve problem that he said was likely in the sheriff’s heart since birth.
“A normal aortic valve when it’s open has the size of, say, a silver dollar,” Menon said. “In the sheriff’s case, his valve opening was about the size of a dime.”
Surgeon Dr. Charles Dicorte inserted a valve into Strain’s heart to allow normal blood flow.
“Just because you take care of yourself, don’t fall into the same category that I did and believe that you are invincible and not vulnerable to these types of situations,” the sheriff said.
Strain should return to work next week, only three weeks after having the valve inserted into his heart.
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