Heart patient says pharmacist may have saved his life

Corin Hartzer, pharmacist

KEARNEY, Neb. -- A heart surgery patient recently wrote to the Kearney Hub newspaper praising a pharmacist whom he feels not only helped him with a prescription problem but possibly saved his life.

The pharmacist at a pharmacy in Kearney that the Kearney man wrote about is Corin Hartzer of Kearney, the daughter of Janell and Yancey Hartzer of Culbertson. Corin is a 2005 graduate of McCook Senior High and 2015 graduate of the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

The gentleman wrote that he missed a couple days of taking a prescription because he didn't go to the pharmacist immediately after being released from the hospital following heart surgery. The pharmacist's concern touched him, and he wrote to the Opinions/Letters to the Editor column of the Kearney newspaper, "She said, 'You have to take this medicine. You can't go another day without it. You've already missed Thursday, Friday and this morning. Your heart operation could fail if you don't start taking it tonight.' I can't remember the rest of the conversation, but the way she said it was not like a high-pressure sales pitch or threat. It was like my daughter or granddaughter was talking to me, or she was talking to her own grandfather with real passion and concern.

She didn't give up on me. She said, 'Since you can't afford the whole prescription I'm going to sell you four pills, one for tonight, two for Sunday and one for Monday morning when you must promise me you'll see your cardiologist'."

The gentleman went to his cardiologist, obtained samples of his medication and a discount coupon to help him buy more until his insurance kicked in. He wrote, "Eventually I went back to the pharmacy to give them the coupon and set up whatever I could. While I was waiting in line I heard someone say, 'Sir, we need your coupon.' I asked her how she knew I had a coupon and she said, 'I called your cardiologist Monday to make sure you went to see him.'

"How very fortunate and blessed I've been to find this Nightingale pharmacist at the corner pharmacy in Kearney. Thank you, Corin. God bless you. Old seniors like me, age 87, really need more people like you. All lives matter, even old senior lives matter."