Randy Watt, Captain of the Little Compton Fire Department in Rhode Island, is a lucky guy.

First of all, Lisa married him.

Secondly, Lisa happens to be a Registered Nurse at Charlton Memorial’s Heart and Vascular Center.

In 2015, Randy was leading a job for his landscaping company when he felt mild chest pain. He started sweating and losing his breath. He took a second, rested, and waited for the episode to end — which it did, after about 10 minutes.

When he felt normal again, he went back to work.

Later, while sitting on the porch enjoying a summer evening, he mentioned the experience to Lisa.

“Are you serious, Randy?” she asked.

Lisa strongly encouraged him to make an appointment with his primary care physician to get a referral to see a cardiologist. On the day of the appointment, Randy arrived to find his wife camped out in the waiting room.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I’m going to talk to the doctor about what happened,” she said.

Lisa immediately let Randy’s PCP know about the episode. Her experience as a cardiac nurse kicked in, and she asked the doctor to order several tests. Randy was referred to Southcoast Health cardiologists Dr. Peter Cohn and Dr. Jay Schachne.

He had an estimated five to eight arterial blockages.

After a successful surgery and recovery, Randy was fully cleared to go back to work at the Little Compton Fire Department three months later.

His surgeon, Dr. Iraklis Gerogiannis, said that if he had waited any longer to get checked out, he wouldn’t have survived another season.

Today, the typically reserved Randy owns the thriving R.A. Watt Landscaping company and is here to enthusiastically tell us all about it.

Lisa continues to work as a cardiac nurse and is grateful that the heart closest to her own was saved, thanks to Southcoast Health’s Heart Hospital at Charlton Memorial.

Not everyone is lucky enough to have a Lisa — a loved one who looks out for us and is a trained medical professional at a nationally recognized cardiovascular center — but our nurses, physicians, and staff treat everyone who walks through the door like family.