No matter who you are, no matter how old you are and no matter where you are, paying attention to your heart could save your life.
That’s the lesson Derick White learned while on vacation in Toronto in August 2022. A few days earlier, he had been at work in Syracuse, New York when he felt a ripping sensation in his chest.
“I didn’t know what it was,” Derick said. “I thought it was heartburn and kept going along with my day. I treated it like a regular day when it was actually more serious.”
Derick continued for a few more days thinking he was dealing with heartburn. He went on vacation to Toronto with his dad and eventually decided he needed to do something about whatever was happening. He went to a hospital in Toronto and the emergency room sent him upstairs for a scan. It only took a few minutes to get results. A nurse practitioner was waiting for him as he got off the elevator coming back downstairs after the scan.
“He asked, ‘Are you Derick?’ and told me to go back upstairs because the doctors think they see something. The fact that he was right there as the elevator opened, I admit, was a little scary,” Derick said.
After his second scan, doctors immediately started prepping Derick for open heart surgery. He had suffered an aortic dissection.
“The scan found an aortic aneurysm that was 8 millimeters big. Later, the doctor told me they would rush someone into surgery at 3 millimeters, so it was a little bigger than sort of the worst-case scenario,” Derick said.
Because the situation was an emergency, the medical team worked quickly. They replaced his aortic valve.
“I didn’t have much time to think about it,” Derick said. “Within 90 minutes of the scan, I was getting wheeled into open heart surgery.”
Derick spent about a week in the hospital in Toronto before going home to Syracuse, where recovery was a long process.
“One of the biggest things that helped me get back into the swing of things was getting to cardiac rehab. I got up, I got moving and slowly built up my stamina over time. It was extremely helpful for my mental health, especially after having that serious of a surgery,” Derick said.
His cardiac rehab program wrapped up just in time for the 2023 Syracuse Heart Walk.
“That was my first year at the walk as part of my job with National Grid,” Derick said. “It has been a great opportunity to pay it back to all the folks who really helped me.”
Derick is now a team coach for the 2026 Syracuse Heart Walk, coming up on April 12 at SRC Arena. He has even joined the American Heart Association’s advisory board in Syracuse. He has been sharing his story to help raise awareness for others and remind everyone how important it is to pay attention when something doesn’t feel right.
“This aortic dissection happened out of nowhere,” he said. “It just goes to show that heart health issues can happen to anyone at any age.”