OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — George and Angie Ranallo are together in a retirement community , sharing their lives as they have for 67 years.
But that life together likely should have ended 9 years ago.
Angie found her George on the floor in the middle of the night.
The 90-year-old Ranallo suffered an abdominal aortic aneurysm and pints of blood pooled in his abdomen.
An emergency ambulance ride took George from the first hospital to St. Luke's Plaza Hospital, where a medical team repaired the damage.
“I knew that something terrible was happening,” Angie said. “They didn’t have to tell me how bad it was.”
Doctors gave him less than a 10 percent chance to live.
George knows he beat long odds and his medical team started calling him the ‘miracle man.'
“He shouldn’t have survived it. Shouldn’t of, but he did,” said Mid-America Heart Institute surgical co-director Dr. Russell Davis. “And he still was out of the hospital in no time. I mean he was up and walking around. He recovered like he had his toenail removed. Incredible, just incredible.”
There are a few factors that can make an abdominal aortic aneurysm more likely: smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes and old age.
Dr. Davis said a simple screening can detect if aneurysm could happen.
“A screening exam is just an ultrasound,” he said. “Just an ultrasound of their abdomen would screen them for this rather readily and very inexpensively.”
Ranallo said those are vivid days to remember as he flipped through the pages of his wedding book.
While sitting around a card table, the Ranallo’s shared memories with their children who will pass along those memories to the next generation.
The Rasallos plan to celebrate Father’s Day and Angie’s birthday this weekend.
“Well, it’s been a marvelous get together for a few years,” George said. “Most people don’t live as long as we’ve been married.”
