ZEELAND, Mich. — Dr. Bernard Ozinga has done a lot in 52 years. He has gotten re-married, retired from his dentistry practice, watched his grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, grow and more.
In those 52 years, he has also beaten the odds.
In 1970, he had a heart attack at the age 39. Ozinga went to Blodgett Hospital.
"They said they were doing a bypass on my arteries," said Ozinga, "I didn't even know what that was. I had to ask him what that was."
At the time, it was a fairly new procedure.
"In the very earliest days of heart surgery, there wasn't a commercially available Heart-Lung machine," said Dr. Edward Murphy, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Corewell Health, "In fact, the surgeon that performed the first open heart surgery at Blodgett literally constructed the Heart-Lung machine in his basement."
Ozinga had the surgery on January 1, 1971. He was told he'd have about five years life expectancy afterward.
That was 52 years ago.
"Wow," said Ozinga, "People don't believe me!"
Ozinga has not only surpassed the expectations of his team of surgeons, but he outlived every one of them as well. At the time, his surgery was performed by a team of doctors: "Harrison, Rassmussen, Basinger, Kim & Associates." Dr. Basinger had a heart attack before Ozinga's surgery could be performed, and actually died at the same hospital while Ozinga was recovering. Dr. Kim died in 2020, Dr. Harrison in 2019 and Dr. Rasmussen in 2014.
"I outlived everybody," said Ozinga, "52 and a half years later, when all the members of the team are gone, You know, I'm still here."
Ozinga is now 91-years-old.
At an appointment, his primary care doctor suggested Ozinga might not just have an amazing story, but a record.
He and his wife, Lynda, applied to the Guinness Book of World Records for "Longest Living Heart Bypass Patient" in the world.
He thinks he has a pretty good shot, as the other record he could find was only for 45 years post surgery.
However, Lynda and Bernard are not expecting to hear back from Guinness. For them, it is not about the record, but the life they gained together.
"The Guinness Book of Records, I think, was just something kind of amusing," said Lynda, "The people that really need to know this are the doctors and nurses that everyday go to work and don't know you just added 50 years to somebody's life, just by doing your job."
Coronary bypass surgery is done often now. Murphy said more than 300,000 are performed each year in the United States. However, that was not always the case.
"Those early days of heart surgery were marked by tremendous heroism on the part of the surgeons, the surgical team and patients," said Murphy, "Patients were very courageous to undergo an operation that had a very high mortality."
He said usually they would see about 10 to 20 year survival after the surgery at that time, but it also is not typically reported.
"I think his his excellent, long term survival after coronary bypass surgery," said Murphy, "is a good testimony to the fact that there isn't a time limit per se, as to how long you can do well if you have very good surgery and take very good care of yourself."
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