Matters of the Heart: Jimmy Deshotels
At 67, healthy and fit, Jimmy Deshotels noticed he couldn’t keep up with the younger guys at work anymore. By the time he got home each day, he was exhausted, chalking it up to getting older — or to wearing heavy PPE in the 100-degree August heat. Climbing a ladder left him winded and gasping for air, though he always recovered quickly. Still, something didn’t feel right. So he listened to his body and made an appointment with his primary care physician. It was Dr. Reagan Elkins who detected a heart murmur and sent him for an EKG.
"I tell everyone to get one,” Deshotels says. He went to the Cardiovascular Institute of the South, where the test was quick and painless — “like a sonogram.” A few weeks later, he was scheduled for open-heart surgery. Doctors told him he could have suffered a widowmaker heart attack if he’d ignored the signs and accepted them as just part of growing older.
His message now is simple: men need to see a doctor when something feels off. Don’t brush it aside. Listen to your heart.
Jimmy Deshotels and his wife Renee, a longtime employee at Bank of Zachary, both plan to retire in February. “With Jimmy’s new and improved heart, we know that the next chapter of our lives, called retirement, will be the best chapter of our lives. I’m so thankful that Jimmy listened to his body, that Dr. Elkins heard the murmur, and especially the heart surgeon’s skilled hands that performed the valve replacement. Prayers were answered!” Renee says.
Photo by Brittany Rosenthal
