How Cycling Saved My Life

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by Ed Bartelme, PCI #584-B
Washington University in Saint Louis (MO) Police Department

I want to share with you a story of how cycling likely saved my life.

Just prior to the start of the 2018 IPMBA Conference, I was experiencing pressure in the center of my chest upon exertion when biking or hiking. It would subside with rest, so being a typical male, I “managed” it and didn’t tell anyone. Over the next few weeks, the pressure evolved into straight-up pain...enough to scare me into telling my wife.

Staci set me up with a cardiologist, who called me in for a stress test. I failed said test. Miserably. From watching my heart on the ultrasound monitor during the stress test, Dr. Groll theorized I had at least 75% blockage of an artery. Next up: cardiac catheter to find the blockage.

On August 14th, I went to Missouri Baptist Medical Center for the cardiac cath. Dr. Groll was stunned to find that a portion of the coronary artery commonly referred to as “the widow-maker” was 99% blocked. Ninety nine percent. It was a holy s**t moment for all of us in the procedure room. He installed a stent, I had three hours of bed rest in the hospital, and was sent home that evening.

Dr. Groll said that I have very strong heart muscle which was able to power through the build-up until it just got to be too much. He was baffled by the fact that I had been out trail riding, patrolling, and teaching on a bike just a few weeks earlier. His exact words were “I don’t have any idea how you were out doing what you were doing.”

That, coming from a 30-year veteran. He blamed the blockage on bad genes, and said that cycling made my heart strong. He credited that strong heart with preventing me from having a heart attack – even though I was dangerously close to it.

I made a full recovery in a relatively short time span. I’m no longer tired all the time, I just plain feel better overall, and I’m back to riding a mountain bike in true “Special Ed” fashion. I feel like I walked up to the Grim Reaper, flipped him the bird, and then jumped on my new [Acid Mint Green 2019 Specialized Stumpjumper Alloy Comp] bike and rode away laughing...maniacally.

Please share my unexpected little story with your friends and colleagues. Everyone who hears it reacts with the same shocked disbelief, exclaiming, “But you ride your bike all the time!” Indeed. And that’s precisely why I’m still here.

Ed is a Corporal with the WUSTL Police Department. He has been a bike officer since his IPMBA Police Cyclist Course in 1997. He was certified as an IPMBA Instructor in 2002, attended the IPMBA Maintenance Officer Course in 2010, and the IPMBA Bicycle Response Team Training and BRT Instructor Seminar in 2017. He was co-chair of the 2018 IPMBA Conference Host Committee. He is an avid cyclist on- and off-duty. On campus, he specializes in riding down stairs most sane people would describe as “impossible” and keeping students guessing. He can be reached at erbartelme@wustl.edu.

Photo by Carla Jennings.

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