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We waited almost a year and a half after her husband's sudden cardiac arrest to ask Linda Isner if she would be our Poster Girl to raise awareness for the Neighborhood Heart Watch.
We feared that the request might be painful for Linda. Dr. Jeff Isner's untimely death is also personally painful, because I regret not having suggested that he keep a defibrillator in their master bedroom. When he was our houseguest, I failed to even mention to him that there was a defibrillator under the bed. He took care of very sick hearts and made them well. He had no heart problem himself. But we were specializing in prevention, and we should have let him know about our defibrillator efforts.
When we invited her to become our Poster Girl, she cheerfully agreed. Linda Isner now shares her tragic story and courageous spirit with NHW readers. Jeff was 53.
Linda's Story
It was 4:00 when Jeff started to toss and turn. I looked at my clock. Jeff was coherent, and I asked him,
"Are you having a spasm?"
He said, "Yes."
"Did you take a nitroglycerin?" I asked him. (He took it for his esophageal reflux.)
"Yes," he said.
But the pain didn't go away. Then, he passed out.
A policeman arrived before the ambulance.
"He has no pulse," he said.
I couldn't believe it, because I just didn't think that was what had happened. I thought Jeff was having an esophageal spasm, as he often had. Then the ambulance came with a defibrillator, but it was too late.
We went to the local hospital, Newton Wellesley. I called one of Jeff's partners, who met us at the hospital. There, they put in a pacemaker. But Jeff was gone.
I had awakened our oldest son when the ambulance arrived to tell him that I was leaving because something had happened to Dad and I needed to go to the hospital. When I returned home, the kids were there, and I had to tell them that they had lost their father.
I remember sitting the children down in my bedroom to tell them that their Dad was gone, but that they would always have me and we were still a family.
Jeff's death was a wake-up call. Praying helped me the most, along with reading the 23rd Psalm. I read it every morning.
I was so blown away by the whole tragedy When they asked me about an autopsy, I said no. I didn't want Jeff to have one then. Now, I'm absolutely kicking myself because I didn't have one done.
You're just in such a fog when you have to make these decisions that you don't think clearly. Jeff's dad died at 63 of a heart problem, so I should have let them do one. But I didn't. The doctors said that they thought Jeff died from an arrhythmia.
NHW Poster Girl
When we told Linda more about the Neighborhood Heart Watch, she was eager to embrace the concept. As the bearer of her husband's legacy, Linda will become an inspiration to other young mothers and wives to invest in what she wishes had been on hand when her husband fell unconscious--an automated external defibrillator.
"I think it's a great idea," Linda said, adding, "I wish I had had one that night."
Linda's loss is the nation's loss. If you would like to read the tribute to her brilliant husband--cardiologist and gene researcher Jeffrey Isner--that appeared in the Post, visit our Web site at www.satevepost.org and click on Neighborhood Heart Watch--an initiative that might have saved him.
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