An excellence expert had a heart attack, then rated his care teams

Bo Dean is passionate about making New Hanover County better.

On the clock, he’s the county’s senior human resources analyst for learning and development, helping 2,000-plus county employees serve with excellence. Off the clock, he serves on six nonprofit boards, helping those organizations deliver on their mission.

Dean, 58, knows excellence when he sees it.

And when his life depended on it, excellence is just what he got.

‘This is serious’

Though Dean isn’t a doctor, he’s gained some medical knowledge through serving on the New Hanover Regional Medical Center Foundation and American Heart Association Cape Fear chapter boards.

That knowledge helped save his life on May 9, 2024, when Dean correctly identified that he was having a heart attack.

For a few weeks, he’d been experiencing indigestion and back pain. That day, he was leading training for the county’s Professional Development Academy when he began feeling shortness of breath and pressure in his chest. A co-worker took his blood pressure, which was a little high.

Then his jaw began to ache. He began to sweat.

Dean knew: it was time to call emergency medical services from Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center.

Although the electrocardiogram administered while he was still at work was inconclusive, emergency medical technicians (EMTs) Hayden Crabb and Marco Colaizzi listened to Dean and told him: This is serious.

“They believed me,” Dean said, “I’m alive today as a result of their care and their attentiveness.”

An ambulance ride – and peace

Crabb and Colaizzi administered pre-hospital care and communicated Dean’s needs to the hospital. They also explained what would happen next. “From the minute I got in that ambulance, I had a peace,” Dean said. “They got me into a calm state.”

At the hospital, Dean was whisked into testing which showed that he had experienced a heart attack and would need quadruple bypass surgery, performed by cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Peter Kane.

This was not where Dean had seen his day going. But he didn’t feel panicked — because of the people helping him.

“At every step of the process, there was some kindness, there was some connection, and there was someone there that was guiding me,” Dean said.

‘Extraordinary’ patient focus, even amid ‘heavy lift’

At work, Dean leads training on agility, customer service, teamwork and managing others.

At the hospital, from ambulance to discharge, he saw case studies of exactly what he teaches.

In particular, Dean recalls the “extraordinary” way that nurse Josh Sawyer “built up” newer nurses by praising their successes and gently educating as needed. “I have never felt safer in my life than to have people like him take care of me,” Dean said. “The interactions and the focus were so incredible. I was blown away by it.”

Dean also remembers Anita Ansell, a certified nursing assistant who has been with the hospital for over 20 years. Dean recognizes that the work Ansell and other aides perform is “such a heavy lift," but said she brought a sense of dignity to the work — and to him.

“After you've been in there for a while and you haven't had a bath, and somebody actually bathes you, it's like a religious experience,” Dean said. “They make you feel like a grown up, like an adult, like you're OK. … I’ve never been cared for like that before.”

And as Dean watched the team work with other patients over his weeklong stay, he observed: “Everybody up here is getting the same attention.”

Today, Dean is back to work and his hobbies, including kayaking, running, walking the beach, and spending time with his husband and 13-year-old Labrador, Jax. He often thinks about the people who cared for him.

“In something that was bigger than anything I've ever challenged with in my entire life, I felt safer than I have ever felt in my life,” Dean said. “These people ... are doing an extraordinary job.”