Terry, historic heart-procedure survivor

"The 80-year-old Jonesborough alderman and retired ETSU professor has been through a lot with his heart."

Terry has been called many things — musician, educator, volunteer, politician — but one name, perhaps, can be considered most important: survivor.

More than 20 years after major heart surgery, Terry is still performing music and serving as an alderman in Jonesborough, and he has Ballad Health to thank.

The 80-year-old Jonesborough alderman and retired ETSU professor — he was the chairman of the computer science department — has been through a lot with his heart.

Most recently, he had a new pacemaker installed last year at Johnson City Medical Center, where he says the staff have always treated him well while providing him with quality care.

It’s been a challenge for Terry, who has undergone years of maintenance on his heart since having an aortic valve surgically replaced in 2001.

Throughout the journey, Terry and his wife became especially close to one of his nurses, Wendy, a Ballad Health team member. When Terry received the updated pacemaker last year, Wendy stopped in and paid a visit.

“That’s when I saw Wendy again,” Terry says. “They took me over there to the Johnson City Medical Center to have that procedure and she was there. She came in and it was a joyful reunion. Since then, I’ve been good.”

Terry got a glimpse of what was ahead with his heart during his early years.

“Growing up, I played a lot of ball and I would have physicals,” he says. “The doctor would always say ‘Well, you’ve got a murmur there.’ I had no idea what that was, but I always passed the physical so I never thought anything of it.”

The murmur came to light again during a routine checkup in 2000 when Terry’s primary care doctor encouraged him to get it checked out.

“They found that I had a bicuspid aortic valve instead of a tricuspid, which was normal. As I got older, it was affecting me more.”

A bicuspid aortic valve is a congenital heart defect which eventually makes someone’s heart work harder to pump blood and can lead to heart failure.

Terry underwent surgery to replace the valve in 2001 at Johnson City Medical Center, but a day after the surgery, he knew something was still not right.

“The next day I was awake and talking to my wife and things, as they say, kind of went south,” he says.

One of Terry’s ventricles had stopped working and the decision was made to use a left ventricular assist device, which helps pump blood from the lower chambers of the heart to the rest of the body.

After five days, the LVAD was removed as Terry’s condition improved. It was an historic occasion.

“I guess I was one of the first ones to be on that and they told me I was the first one to come off it successfully, which still makes me choke up,” he says, taking a moment to compose himself.

Six weeks later he was out of the hospital.

“When I got out of ICU and I was more cognizant, talking to my wife and others, I became optimistic that the Lord had more for me to do.”

In 2019, he made a trip to the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio to have the original valve replaced in what was described to him as an “overhaul.”

An accomplished banjo player, Terry is playing a different stringed instrument, an Irish bouzouki, these days. His band, the Jonesborough Novelty Band, donates any money it makes from its performances to Habitat for Humanity and can often be seen playing at many special events in Jonesborough.

“My whole experience at Johnson City Medical Center was excellent,” Terry says. “I received very good care and we were very happy.”

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