The Bates family blog

Wednesday, September 30, 2026

A health update on Gil

Kelly made an update on her husband.

Once again the Lord has been so merciful to us! For the past 2 weeks Gil has felt an unusual feeling in his chest lasting about 30 seconds off & on, and occasionally his jaw would hurt. He wasn’t in pain, but he felt like something wasn’t right. Busy schedules, work, & the fact that he didn’t know for certain that something was wrong kept him from going to the hospital. On Mon night, after finishing a tree job & mowing several yards, he decided to drive to the ER, thinking they’d do some blood work & send him home. Instead, he was quickly whisked into a room & was told he was having a mild heart attack. They immediately started him on nitro & heparin & kept him stable until the day shift doctors could do a heart cath on Tues. The cath procedure took 4 hrs, as they had to do extensive work to the LAD artery (nicknamed the widow maker). He had 80% blockage in that artery & a lot of calcium build up. A regular balloon would not open it, so they used Shockwave (lithotripsy) & then placed a 24 mm stent in it. Next, they put a 48mm stent (the longest stent) in the RCA artery in the back of his heart (where he had the actual heart attack). He had a 95% blockage in that artery. There was a 3rd artery with a 45-50% blockage that did not require a stent. The doctor said Gil had been a “ticking time bomb” & he was extremely close to having a major heart attack! Fortunately, it was corrected in time, and with GOD’S GRACE (and a wonderful team of doctors), we’re living out a MIRACLE & are going home today! The doctor said it could’ve been a VERY different story, & I could’ve been going home alone, which is how that artery earned its nickname! Gil will be starting cardiac therapy next week, along with some other diet & medicine changes, but his normal activity should be able to resume! We’re beyond thankful for the love, care, & many prayers we’ve been showered with from family, friends, & medical staff these past 2 days. We would also covet your prayers, but mostly, we just want to lift our hands in praise to a powerful, wonderful, loving God for extending Gil’s life & letting us have another day to witness His goodness ❤️