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Rare aortic dissection targets two siblings, saved by the same surgeon
Cardiac surgeon Matt Henn, MD, saved siblings Earlie and Larry Smith. Now, cardiovascular genetic testing may save their brother.
Larry Smith remembers the “pop” in his chest.
It was an otherwise-normal weekday morning in the spring of 2024, and he really didn’t think much of it. The Springfield resident, 55, grabbed some antacids and headed with his wife to get the oil changed in her car in nearby Vandalia, Ohio.
As they waited, he couldn’t escape the feeling that he wanted to sleep. But his restless body made that impossible. Within hours, he would understand the gravity of the situation.
The “pop” he’d felt was no ordinary heartburn. Larry had suffered a tear in his aorta — the body’s main artery, which branches off the heart. Known as an aortic dissection, the condition occurs when there is a split in one of the inner layers of the artery. If blood penetrates the aorta’s outer layer, the condition is often deadly.
Larry’s wife noticed something was off with him and drove him to the hospital. Doctors in Springfield recognized the seriousness of Larry’s situation and called for a CareFlight to rush him to The Ohio State University Heart and Vascular Center for surgery. Due to the stormy weather, Larry had to be taken by ambulance to Ohio State, where Larry’s older brother, Samuel, anxiously awaited him.
Larry Smith said he knew he was in good hands when he found out Dr. Henn was conducting his surgery.
Samuel listened as cardiac surgeon Matthew Henn, MD, laid bare the situation for Larry. Despite the seriousness of his condition, there was good news — almost half of the people in his situation don’t make it to the hospital in time, but among those who do make it to surgery, about 90% fully recover.
As he listened, Samuel realized he’d heard this same talk before. Six months earlier, he’d listened as Dr. Henn gave the same briefing to their younger sister, Earlie Smith, as he was preparing to perform the same surgery to repair her aortic dissection.
“I broke down,” Larry recalls. “Once I saw that this was the same doctor that saved Earlie, I knew I was going to be OK.”
‘A cough away from death’
Aortic dissections are rare. For every 100,000 people, only about three cases occur each year, and they’re most common in men ages 50 to 65. People like Larry, in other words.
But Earlie’s case was different. She was just 39 in October 2023 when she suddenly began experiencing symptoms consistent with a heart attack. In addition to the tear in her aorta, she was suffering from pneumonia when she was diagnosed at a local Columbus hospital then CareFlighted to The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Earlie was told this was the only hospital within a 50-mile radius that had the expertise to treat her.
Dr. Matthew Henn, left, performed surgery to repair Earlie Smith’s aortic dissection in October 2023.
She was rushed to surgery within 20 minutes of arrival, where Dr. Henn, assistant professor of Surgery at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, repaired her aorta and replaced a valve in her heart. It wasn’t until after the procedure that she met him.
“I don't know if it was the medication I was on or the sunlight coming through the room, but he seemed to be glowing to me,” Earlie recalls. “I just remember him having a very calming energy. Him talking to me made me feel safer. I felt like, ‘I'm going to be OK.’”
It was a significant recovery for Earlie. After the procedure, she was told that she had been “a cough away from death.”
“Her particular dissection was very severe and had a lot of risk. We were fortunate to get to her when we did,” Dr. Henn says.
Hope through genetic testing
When Earlie awoke from surgery, she remembered a dream she had while she was under. It was of her mother, who passed away in 2021. In the dream, Earlie was at her mother’s house, but couldn’t get in. Her mother told her it wasn’t time for her to be there, which Earlie took as a sign that it wasn’t her time to go — she was going to recover from her surgery.
The Smiths aren’t sure whether genetics played a role in their mother’s passing, but Earlie knows that a genetic defect contributed to her own dissection. Aortic dissection is not typically linked to lifestyle habits that increase risks, and after what happened to Larry, Samuel is now in the process of getting genetic tests at Ohio State to see if he's predisposed to aortic dissection as well.
“We can’t have our second brother go down,” Earlie says. “We are so fortunate to be able to have the testing. If I was the warning bell, Larry was the alarm. Sam, get on it. You know, he’s our rock, so we kind of need him standing up, right?”
Samuel Smith, right, was present when both of his siblings had lifesaving heart surgeries at The Ohio State Heart and Vascular Center. At left is his younger sister, Earlie, and older brother Larry is at center.
A full-circle moment
The Smith siblings attended the Central Ohio Heart Walk in August 2024, less than a year after Earlie’s surgery.
Earlie wore a shirt with her mother’s photo on it, reading “Dr. Henn, two-time winner.” It listed the dates of October 20 and May 4, when she and her brother, respectively, had their surgeries. The back read “Shaggy’s Crew,” a reference to her mother’s nickname.
The Smiths both met Dr. Henn at the event, and the hugs and gratitude were heartfelt for all parties involved.
Dr. Henn was there with his three daughters, ages 7, 9 and 11.
“All they see is me rushing out the door — ‘Oh, Daddy’s not gonna be home,’” he says, choking up. “This was literally the first time that they made the connection about what I do. We go through all this training, the busy nights. We spend a lot of time away from our families.
“To be part of a team that helps save an entire family is very, very special.”
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