Expert Care, Made Human | That's PeopleCare

David Butler's cancer journey took him through a rare jaw reconstruction, radiation and coordinated care from specialists across Wellstar. His care team collaborated to provide what he needed as quickly and efficiently as possible.

A bothersome mouth sore

Lean and energetic, David is quick with a joke and even quicker with a smile. A neatly trimmed mustache frames a grin that lights up his blue eyes, illuminating his trademark optimism and humor. They’re qualities he kept intact throughout cancer treatment and draws on today, when he encourages people who are newly diagnosed with cancer.

It started with a sore on his gum in the fall of 2023. He assumed it would heal on its own. Instead, it got worse. When he could hardly swallow a few months later, his dentist referred him to an oral surgeon for a biopsy. That’s when he got the life-changing news: it was cancer.

“You hear the big C and it scares you to death,” David said. “But there's light at the end of the tunnel. There's always hope.”

What followed was cancer treatment involving surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and support from a whole team of cancer specialists. Along the way, David said he leaned on his faith, the support of his wife, Jill, who he credits as his biggest advocate—and the expertise of Wellstar caregivers.

Pat Gelisse has been dancing for 30 years. She even taught the Carolina shag for a while. It’s a partner dance, sometimes compared to Swing dancing to beach music.

But severe heart failure downgraded Pat’s dancing queen status for close to 10 years.

“I went from feeling happy to feeling like a nothing,” she remembered of that time in her life.

With a team of Wellstar heart specialists working together for her, Pat found hope and new life on the dance floor.

Heart failure masquerades as acid reflux

It started more than a decade ago when Pat lived in central Georgia. She scheduled a doctor’s appointment for what she thought was acid reflux. She popped in on a quick break from her marketing job, assuming it wouldn’t take long.

Blood work and an EKG got Pat a ticket straight to the hospital and a quadruple bypass. 

“My heart got worse; it wasn’t pumping blood,” Pat said.

She was in acute heart failure, a life-threatening condition where the heart doesn’t pump well enough to deliver the necessary amount of oxygen to her body. Pat’s ejection fraction (EF)—the percentage measurement of the blood that leaves the heart each time it pumps—was only 10%. The normal range is 50 to 70%.

It was a scary time, and with a family history of heart problems, Pat was worried. She’d lost both parents to heart failure, as well as other family members.

“I just knew for sure I was going to be next,” said Pat.

Doctors from various academic institutions discussed serious treatments ranging from LVAD to transplant, but because the pumping performance of her heart improved, she was no longer a candidate for those procedures. Instead, Pat spent close to nine years managing her heart failure with a pacemaker and various medications—treatments that failed to get her back on the dance floor.

There aren’t many people out there who can say they survived cardiac arrest at 30. Kevin Miskewicz can.

According to the American Heart Association, more than 90% of people who experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest die. Those who survive often have permanent neurological disabilities. But Kevin’s story has an incredibly fortunate ending, thanks to the highly coordinated work of his medical experts at Wellstar.

Recovering from cardiac arrest is something Kevin will never forget. It lives forever as a piece of his health history—one that includes a dedicated healthcare team—and his wife, who was the first to save his life.

CPR to the rescue

Kevin woke up on Labor Day 2017 at 5:30 AM to take the dog out. Pausing to adjust the thermostat as he came in, he fell, knocking over a lamp.

He was in cardiac arrest.

With no symptoms and no known pre-existing condition, this was unexpected, but that didn’t stop his wife, Andrea, from jumping into action.

“If it weren’t for me knocking over a lamp when I passed out,” said Kevin, “she would have never woken up and saved my life.”

In addition to calling 911 and unlocking the door for the paramedics, Andrea performed CPR for 10 minutes.

“Kevin’s wife doing good CPR was critical,” said Dr. Arthur Reitman, the interventional cardiologist who was a vital part of Kevin’s treatment team at Wellstar Kennestone Regional Medical Center. “More than five minutes of poor blood flow to the brain can result in permanent irreparable injury from which a patient is unable to recover.”

Coordinating multidisciplinary care to save a life

When paramedics arrived at Kevin’s home, he had no pulse and was not breathing. As the paramedics performed their lifesaving work, he technically died two times.

The ambulance took him to Wellstar North Fulton Medical Center, where he was initially assessed and treated by Dr. David Jacoboff. The interventional cardiologist implanted an intra-aortic balloon pump to stabilize him. Then, he transferred Kevin to Wellstar Kennestone for highly specialized heart care.

When Kevin arrived at Wellstar Kennestone by helicopter, his heart function wasn’t strong enough to support his body. Dr. Reitman and a team of doctors including a cardiologist, a pulmonologist and critical care doctors worked in tandem to put Kevin on an advanced life support system called veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Better known as VA-ECMO, it took the heart “offline” so it could heal. The technology removed unoxygenated blood from his body, oxygenated it and pumped it back in for the next three days.

“Very few places in the state—only four or five hospitals—have the technology and specialized training to put a patient on ECMO,” Dr. Reitman explained.