To the Rescue
Physicians Act Quickly to Save Cardiac Patient at Second Baptist Church

If cardiac trouble drives you to your knees and then to the floor on a Sunday morning, Phillip Johnson prays you do it where he did recently - at Houston's Second Baptist Church.

No, not just because Rev. Ed Young can focus the prayers of 7,000 parishioners in the sanctuary on you. Or because he can call on the power of prayer from the 26,000 members of the church.

It also doesn't hurt, Johnson says, to have a powerful St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital presence on hand when your heart goes out of whack.

"I was sitting in church and then all of a sudden I had these pains," recalls Johnson, a semi- retired engineer. "I felt nauseous, went down to one knee and then I just laid down."

Within seconds, two St. Luke's physicians who are Second Baptist parishioners, Richard Leachman, M.D., and J. Michael Duncan, M.D., had made their way to Johnson.

"He was pale and looked bad," Leachman recalls. "We got someone to call 9-1-1 right away."

"He had all the classic symptoms of a heart attack," adds Duncan.

As the real life drama played out and Johnson was carried to the foyer, Rev. Young spoke about how fortunate Houstonians were to have the kind of health care practiced at St. Luke's. He recalled how another parishioner had been helped at the hospital.

"I always advise people with heart trouble to go to St. Luke's," says Rev. Young, whose sermons are broadcast around the world.

Today, Phillip Johnson feels fine.

"It turned out I didn't have a heart attack. Dr. Leachman performed an angioplasty and put a stent in an artery and I'm feeling great now."

Johnson isn't understated on how he views the medical treatment at St. Luke's.

"Rev. Young is right," he says. "It doesn't get any better."

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