Breaking the cycle: A surgeon’s fight against genetic heart disease

William Cooper calls Atlanta home, a city located a two-hour flight away from Kansas City, where he contracts as a heart surgeon.

Cooper, a proud Kansas City Chiefs fan, displayed the team’s logo on his jacket during our Zoom interview, just a week after the Chiefs’ Super Bowl win.

Super Bowl Sunday, a day filled with excitement, included an unexpected visit to the emergency room for Cooper after he experienced chest pain.

Without hesitation, Cooper called a colleague and headed to the hospital. In the end, his tests came back negative for a cardiac event, and the pain he experienced was most likely the result of overexertion from an earlier workout.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, chest pain is more common in athletes aged 35 and older than in those who live a less active lifestyle.

However, Cooper knows that genetic factors contribute to the likelihood of developing heart disease regardless of age, which is why, after losing two siblings to heart disease, he shares his family’s medical history with his children and encourages them to get tested.

What inspired your decision to pursue a career as a cardiothoracic surgeon?

That story has been unfolding for me all my life, from the time I was born. I was always a little precocious and sort of grasped things very quickly. I took a really keen interest in the biological sciences. But the thing that really tipped me over was that my mom died when I was 14. She was only 46 with eight kids, and she died of pancreatic cancer.

At 14, not having a mother around was very impactful for me, and I was angry. I was like, man, God, why did you do this? But I turned it into wanting to conquer and cure cancer.

There was no doubt in my mind at that point that I was going to be a doctor. And I was not going to be deterred in that endeavor. But the reality is, when I got to medical school, I just couldn’t fathom seeing more and more people die of cancer like my mother.

While attending medical school, I made a connection with some cardiovascular surgeons who were very good with students. They motivated me and gave me the confidence that I could do this.

Unfortunately, years later, my sister and brother died of heart attacks.

How has the personal tragedy of losing family members to the same illness you work to treat affected your experience as a surgeon?

So, our families are a microcosm of society in many respects, and none more than when it comes to our genetic makeup. And so, it gave me perspective. It really allows me to honestly speak to people differently about the whole idea of cardiovascular disease because it has struck home.

And I’m glad you asked me this question because I think so many of us really don’t think about it until the leaf falls in our backyard. Then we have to rake it up. You know, leaves are falling in our neighbor’s yard. Not my problem. But guess what? When it comes to heart disease and physical ailments, they are going to fall into your backyard one day.

It influences the way that I go about my business and approach not only my personal health but also how I counsel.

So as strange as it may seem, my family’s tragedy, quite frankly, I hope, has turned into a life of knowledge for someone else. I got really, really interested in the whole idea of genetics in the heart as it relates to heart disease. In my career, I believe that the most powerful risk factor is family history.

I’ve seen absolutely normal people with a strong family history of heart disease come to me with heart attacks, needing heart surgery, having had stents, and all those other things. So, it really got me thinking about the idea of genetics and family history as it relates to cardiovascular disease.

How have you communicated your family’s history of cardiovascular issues and your own medical experiences to your children?

So, there’s another little piece of this story that needs to be told first. In 2003, I was deployed to Iraq for the Army Reserve. I came back from that deployment, and over the course of the next two, three, or four years, I developed PTSD. It manifested itself through these overwhelming intrusive thoughts of dying early and young. And one of the therapies for me became journaling and writing stuff down.

That culminated in me writing a book titled “Heart Attack: Truth, Tragedy and Triumph.” The first chapter of that book is about the family history. And I go into the deaths of my mom, my younger sister, my sister and brother Vicki and Alvin, who died of heart problems, my sister Janice, who died of cancer, and my oldest brother Alex, who died of HIV/AIDS.

That was therapeutic for me because the thing that created so much fear for me was the idea of leaving my kids prematurely. When I started to write this stuff down, I was writing the story so that they would know about it.

The conversation doesn’t hurt. It may be painful to think about, but that only lasts for a second. Because then the reality sets in that they’re still here, you’re still here, and you’re here to have this conversation. That’s the beauty of it.

I am not going to allow my kids to go through their lives or have a problem with their hearts without knowing that they are at risk. So, we’re going to get checked. That’s how we communicate. We have to be very, very open and honest with our kids and loved ones about those things that could matter, not just to us but also to them.

Considering the instances of death you face in your professional capacity, what methods do you utilize to lessen their mental impact?

In the last 10 to 15 years, I’ve become a much more spiritual person. Spirituality and getting in touch with a deeper sense of self have been very helpful in that regard. And so, to avoid taking on that energy, I channel my energy into doing all I can to be a positive benefit to everybody that I meet when it comes to health and wellness.

I get myself out of the books, the academic rhetoric, and the statistics and just start talking to people. I start talking to people, trying to meet them where they are. I understand that they don’t have the same knowledge that I do, but I also let them know that the knowledge they do have is very powerful, and they don’t have to just rely on any one person’s opinion or advice when it comes to their health.