West Bend man finds chance to return to clinic that saved his life

WEST BEND, Wis. - With a smile on his face, there is no doubt Greg Koenig feels he's exactly where he needs to be.

It's February, and Koenig is busy on a job at Froedtert West Bend Hospital. The carpenter meticulously drills, measures and aligns what will be a kitchen island.

"They said there's an opportunity at the West Bend hospital, and I said, 'That'd be great, nice and close,'" Koenig said.

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But this job wasn't his first time here.

In fact, the path the 49-year-old took to get here would stop some of us in our tracks.

"Everything was labored – way more labored than what I thought it would be," Koenig said.

The longest 2.5 minutes of his life

This story starts on May 13, 2023.

Koenig joined some of his coworkers for a Tough Mudder in Slinger. The long-distance obstacle course is designed to conquer your fears through teamwork.

"I'm like a kid at heart," Koenig said. "The obstacles looked fun."

And at 48 years old then, this 'kid' crossed the finish line with his team.

But Koenig admits, the race was tougher than he thought it would be.

"Something didn't feel right," he said.

He said he felt chest tightness only a few miles into the race, and initially, he chalked it up to being out of shape. Koenig added it was hard for him to breathe at times.

After a few post-race beers, Koenig made his way for the exit, still unsure of what was happening with his body.

That Saturday was the night of his son's prom, and he'd planned to make it home in time for photos. Koenig said he thought he could ride out the post-race pain on the couch, until he felt a moment of panic in the event's merchandise tent.

That's when he decided to double back to the medical tent, which he estimated was 75 yards away.

He told the EMTs he'd just finished the race.

"And, I said, 'I think I'm having a heart attack,'" Koenig said.

He remembered them handing him aspirin, then an overwhelming feeling of fatigue, but he didn't recall what happened next.

Then, he coded for 2.5 minutes.

Koenig said when he woke, he was surrounded by those paramedics and some of his buddies he'd finished the race with.

"I had a tough time realizing that that's what happened," he said. "Like even right now, it's like, I... I could've been gone."

The next thing he knew, those first responders were loading him into an ambulance headed for Froedtert's Menomonee Falls Hospital.

The road to recovery

With a stent in his right coronary artery, Koenig made his first visit to the Intensive Cardiac Rehabilitation Program at Froedtert West Bend.

Froedtert was the first health care provider in Wisconsin to stand up this style of dedicated unit.

Craig Feiter was his exercise physiologist.

"We've had, quote un-quote, other Gregs in here," Feiter said.

Here, the rehab focus is twofold.

They aim to help patients regain their strength and conditioning under the close watch of Feiter and others.

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"Our goal is always to get people back to their pre-cardiac event stage of their life," Feiter said.

Patients spend the rest of their time with Sarah Bedford, lead clinical dietitian for the cardiac rehabilitation program.

"What I like to say is it's intense in education," Bedford said.

While there is apprehension on the physical side, the nutritional side is often its own challenge.

Bedford works to right the wrongs in her patients' diets, which often contribute to their cardiac condition.

She doesn't just tell patients what's healthy and what's not. It's her job to demonstrate healthy eating by showing patients how to first select ingredients before preparing them.

"I will give them the tools that they need to hopefully succeed, but ultimately, it's them doing it," Bedford said.

The program's beginnings came with growing pains. It started in a tight space, with a lot of the exercise equipment placed close together.

In February, Bedford did all of her cooking on a utility cart with a single-burner stovetop, which she called her 'mobile kitchen'.

"So, it is a small cart setup, very small space," Bedford said.

That kind of sounds like a job for a carpenter, right?

Koenig, at least, thought so at the end of his 72 rehab sessions.

"We joked around. I said, 'If I get a chance, I'll come back and build this, you know, help build it with ya,'" he said.

And then, he did.

The cardiac connection

By coincidence, or cardiac connection, work brought Koenig back to the place that helped save him.

"I'm very happy to be here," he said, standing behind a finished kitchen counter he helped build.

Nearly two months after we first met Koenig, we returned to Froedtert West Bend to see the finished product.

Inside the clinic space, the program is now self-contained on a single floor.

Patients walk through a secure entry into a brand-new gym with mostly new equipment, a walking track, weight machines and free weights, and windows that provide a great view of the sunset.

"I had told them I would like a one-month membership back, now that it looks so nice," Koenig said.

The progress was noticeable – in more ways than one.

"I feel good," Koenig said. "I'm glad I got to help build it."

And in her full demonstration kitchen, space isn't a problem for Bedford anymore.

She has a fridge and freezer to herself, in addition to a fully stocked pantry, and cabinets and drawers full of every utensil you could think of. 

"If I forget an ingredient, I just turn around and grab it from the fridge or grab it from dry goods," Bedford said.

It's here, she said, she's excited to focus more on heart-healthy recipes and less on the extra prep necessary to safely cook food off a utility cart.

The kitchen is also equipped with a camera above the stovetop and a monitor facing the classroom seats, so that her patients don't just smell and taste her food. They can see exactly how it's made.

After all, she knows how important this education is.

"Food is the center of everything," Bedford said. "It's kind of why they call the kitchen the heart of the home, right?"

So, maybe it's only right a heart attack survivor lent a hand to help build the program's new space.

Koenig said he felt good knowing other survivors will benefit from the rehab program – just like he did.

"I just know there's a lot of people that they're going to help in here," Koenig said.

Koenig entered the program with the goal of being able to embark on an elk hunting trip he'd already paid for last fall in Colorado.

He admitted that might have been an aggressive goal, but Feiter, Bedford and their staff helped him achieve that goal, while remaining committed to his heart-healthy eating.

While Koenig said he'd like to try a Tough Mudder again, he promised his wife he wouldn't after thanking her for standing by him throughout his medical journey.

"She was there and more than there with helping me," Koenig said.

Instead, he said he'll be happy just to be there for life's moments.