Ryan Carrigan was 6’2” and 225, with a smile and laugh that echoed through any room. He was handsome, kind, caring, intelligent, and a gentleman. Ryan was loved by all who knew him. He was a gentle giant, a real-life Teddy Bear, earning him his nickname, Huggy Bear.
Ryan led his life with honor, integrity, and love. He was the best person anyone could ever hope to be. I pray to be as good as he was.
Ryan was the love of my life. I lost him to FH on June 29, 2018.
Walking into a gym on summer vacation from Florida State University in 2001, I spotted Ryan across the room. I thought he was the most beautiful man I had ever seen. When I found out he was seven years older than I was, I first decided this was an absolute no-go.
But then … after many jokes and hours of conversation that went on until the gym closed… we ended up dating the entire summer. I went home and told my mother I had met the man I was going to marry someday, but not until after I graduated college and established a career. I wanted to have time to become an incredible woman who was an asset to a marriage and family.
Ryan had Familial Hypercholesterolemia, a genetic condition I do not believe he ever fully understood. He also never shared he had this … or the history of early deaths, premature heart attacks, heart failure, and high blood pressure that prominently ran down his mother’s side of the family.
He worked out every day, and was extremely particular in his diet. Ryan was living the healthiest of lives.
I later learned that at one time he had been on high blood pressure medicine, that he had stopped taking. And I did remember seeing bottles of Lipitor (a cholesterol-lowering medication) in a medicine cabinet, but he had stopped taking these as well. When I asked him about it, he shrugged it off. “It’s expensive. I don’t need it.”
I do not believe he understood that with FH – looking like the picture of health, working out daily, and being particular with diet – had no effect on his genetic predisposition. He didn’t want to take medicine and preferred to be natural. He didn’t understand that only medications and lifelong treatment would have made a difference.
In Ryan's case, while he worked out, lived a life of love, goodness, and purity, atherosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease had taken over his body. And it had gone unchecked. The picture of health, Ryan hadn’t been for a checkup in two years.
What heart disease and FH were doing to his body and heart is incomprehensible.
After he died, we learned his heart was all but destroyed: double the size it should have been. On the left side, all vessels and arteries were nearly completely blocked and calcified. On the right side of his heart, 50% were blocked. The autopsy report showed that he had damage from several heart attacks that he never knew he had had. His liver was double the size it should have been. He had damage in his lungs and had a mild blockage in his brain. It turns out he was in heart failure for at least the final month of his life.
He was so full of energy each day. He came home to make world-class dinners. He worked out seven days a week. He glowed of health. Never in a million years would he have ever believed anything like this could have happened to him.
In his final week he began to deteriorate. At lunch with a co-worker, he felt so nauseous he didn’t order a meal. That was the first instance in nearly seventeen years of knowing him - in sickness and in health - I had ever heard of him declining a meal. He was sweating, and he said his chest felt tight. His co-worker grew concerned. Ryan laughed, and joked that he had been working out too hard that week and probably needed to cut back. He finished his day.
That night he was his usual busy self, in the gym, cooking dinner, and racing around playing practical jokes. In his final ten minutes I spoke to him on the phone on my way home. He told me he had tightness in his chest while on the treadmill and his back and chest were feeling tight. I told him to go to hospital across the street, but he declined saying he was resting and would see me when I got home. Later I found his search history on the phone, and discovered he had been looking at symptoms of a heart attack and also for generalized anxiety disorder. He had an upcoming work trip to Germany and I believe he had settled on the fact that he was nervous about this, and that it wasn't a heart attack.
By the time I got home, we just had a few minutes left. What would have been our typical Friday evening of Ryan cooking dinner, ended with Ryan dying in my arms as I dialed 911. Attempts to resuscitate him failed as the damage done to his body was just too great to overcome.
The love of my life was gone in a matter of minutes.
FH Can’t Wait.
Heart Disease is the #1 Killer of Men and Women in the United States and FH is the most common genetic cause of deadly heart disease.
FH is a Life Threatening Condition that requires early diagnosis and lifelong management including daily medications and monitoring. Please learn from our story. It may seem simple, but a daily pill, even if you look and feel fine, may be what saves your life.
Ryan would want me to share our story to save other people’s lives.
And that is my prayer. Please share this story to help answer my prayer.
April D.
Advocate for Awareness
Family Heart Foundation
5 Responses to “Ryan’s Story”
Susan Lipnicky
Ryan was such a beautiful person. The tragedy is that if only a doctor had told him about FH his death could have been prevented.
Debbie Hileman
April I was so happy to meet you at the FH foundation. ..Your story is so toughing..
Amanda Taylor
My husband has FH. He was diagnosed at age 27. A lot of damage had already been done at that point. He had his first heart attack at age 30 (he didn’t know that’s what it was till later) His 2nd widow maker heart attack was in 2012 at the age of 36. Thankfully he survived and a stent was placed in his proximal LAD to clear a 95% blockage. He has been on Max medical treatment ever since November 2012. He did great for almost 6 years. Symptom free. Then in August 2018 he had chest pressure, sweating, nausea, shortness of breath and numbness/tingling in left arm. He was found to have another 90% blockage in a different artery. It was stented and the symptoms resolved. He is currently doing well. He takes Crestor 80mg daily. Plavix 75mg daily. Aspirin 81mg daily. Lisinopril 10mg daily. He is also on the new injectable drug Repatha that has shown amazing results. I hope this drug can start saving lives! Ryan’s story is heartbreaking. Unfortunately there are so many people out there who have no idea they have FH or how aggressive and deadly it is. I wanna help get the word out.
Amanda Sheldon
Thank you Amanda for sharing your story. We would love to have you help get the word out. Someone from our team will connect with you! – Amanda, from the FH Foundation.
Kated
Nice post. I learn something more challenging on different blogs everyday. It will always be stimulating to read content from other writers and practice a little something from their store. Thanks for sharing.