As the radio voice of the Husker women’s basketball team, Matt Coatney puts his heart and soul into every iconic, ‘You betcha!’ call. But a health scare in 2023 forced him to take a step back and evaluate his heart. February is National Heart Month, and thanks to Madonna ProActive medical fitness gym and specialized cardiac rehabilitation, Matt says he is feeling better now than he has in a very long time.
What started as a simple inconvenience ended with a six-day hospital stay.
“I also work for the Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles, and I had a state government meeting in Houston, Texas in early May,” Matt said. “My flight got canceled, so I had to drive 14 hours down there and 14 hours back.”
While in Houston, Matt noticed he was feeling especially tired, which he chalked up to the long road trip. When he got back home to Lincoln, he noticed he was retaining fluid around his ankles and the back of his legs. Normally walking five miles a day, Matt also found himself having to stop after only a quarter of a mile. He thought the problem would resolve itself, but it only continued to get worse.
“I was losing my ability to breathe normally, and I was running out of breath easily,” Matt said. “I found myself having to stop, going to the parking garage even, from work. My son and I had a golf date scheduled in June and I had to back out of it because I didn’t feel like I could walk the course.”
Matt made an appointment with his primary care provider who sent him to the emergency room at Bryan Health. There, doctors found two blood clots, one in his leg and one in his right lung. Matt was also diagnosed with congestive heart failure.
“My heart was down to about 20-25% ejection fraction,” Matt said. “They hospitalized me, and in a six-day-period, they took 80 pounds of fluid off me.”
Doctors also prescribed cardiac rehabilitation at ProActive to help Matt start his recovery journey safely. The program is designed for people who are recovering from a heart-related incident, whether that be a surgery, a heart attack or congestive heart failure.
“Madonna ProActive’s cardiac rehab program is a really holistic and individualized approach, so we really look at the patient’s journey and what they want to accomplish in their time with cardiac rehab and then we tailor their experience based on those goals,” Sam Kelly, ProActive’s general manager and director of the cardiac rehabilitation program, said.
Matt says he loved the individualized approach to care.
“I really appreciated that the staff here asked me what my goals were,” he said. “I thought they were going to tell me what my goals should be, but they were really more interested in what I wanted to get out of it. I wanted to rebuild muscle strength, particularly in my legs, and really work on my stamina.”
Over the next 12 weeks, Matt came to ProActive twice a week for fitness sessions as well as nutrition and heart health education from specially trained on-site cardiac nurses. He worked with fitness trainer Haley Morrow, who monitored his blood pressure and heart rate throughout his therapy and gently pushed him to increase his endurance. The pair alternated using the treadmill, NuStep machine and stationary bike to get his heart pumping. Matt also resumed his walking routine and worked his way back up to his five miles a day.
“We really work to make sure we instill that healthy lifestyle and those healthy behaviors into that patient’s life, even beyond cardiac rehab,” Kelly said.
Now finished with his cardiac rehabilitation program, Matt continues to go to ProActive several times a week and he’s seeing the results. He’s down 140 pounds, and his heart has rebounded from his health scare.
“When I was going to do my echocardiogram at Bryan in September, they said, ‘Look, there are very elite athletes who have congestive heart failure, who stay at that level their whole life, 20-25%, so don’t be worried if you didn’t improve at all.’ After I had that procedure, I was at 55-60% in the ejection fraction,” Matt said.
Using what he’s learned in cardiac rehab and continuing to utilize the equipment at ProActive, Matt isn’t slowing down any time soon. He’s also enjoying the reaction of people when he sees them at basketball games.
“Now, when people see me courtside, they don’t recognize me at first,” Matt said. “I look different and I honestly feel completely different. Overall, quality of life is night and day different than when I started that cardiac rehab program, and I can’t thank the staff here enough for that.”