Dr. Geoff Puley

Story Submitted by Joanne Nakagawa

My Trillium Hero is Dr. Geoff Puley, MD and cardiologist extraordinaire!

Although my husband's heart attack happened over 6 years ago, my eyes still tear up when I recall the events of that Christmas. At the age of 43, this type of event couldn't be further from our minds, but on December 22, 2005, my husband was admitted to Trillium Health Centre and was told he was experiencing a heart attack.

Our world became blurry as events followed quickly. He was transferred from the Etobicoke site to the Mississauga site where he was attended to quickly. He was attended to by Dr. Geoff Puley.

There are not enough superlatives to describe Dr. Puley. It was determined my husband had several extreme blockages to main arteries. Dr. Puley (with the aid of nurses specially called in from Christmas holiday) performed lifesaving surgery on my husband. Myocardial infarction, thrombus, LAD, warfarin,plavix -- it was all a foreign language. 

Dr. Puley patiently explained all the medical jargon, listened to all our questions and most importantly performed "top-notch" surgery on the man I love. He gave us a future.

As a mother, the one incident that still stands out to this day was that in his very busy and hectic day he stopped to speak to our son who was having a lot of trouble understanding why "daddy" could not come home for Christmas day.

It takes an extraordinary professional to possess all these qualities!
 

Joanne is greatful for her Trillium hero, Dr. Puley, above, who helped her husband Ron, after he experienced a heart attack.