On October 9, 1971, Dr. Nelson performed a selective coronary arteriogram
and found that President Kimball’s heart was being overworked because of severe
aortic valve disease. The overworked heart was being undersupplied with blood
because of an obstruction in the main arterial supply line to the cardiac
muscle.
“Five months later, the hour of decision approached,” Russell solemnly
recalled. “Neither Dr. Wilkinson nor I recommended a surgical approach because
of the complex nature of the heart operation that would be needed and because
of President Kimball’s being congestive heart failure at seventy-seven years of
age. So President Kimball called a special meeting with the First Presidency.
Invited to the meeting in addition to the First Presidency and Sister Kimball
were Dr. Ernest L. Wilkinson and myself. President Kimball began the meeting by
saying, ‘I am a dying man. I can feel my life slipping. At the present rate of
deterioration, it is my belief that I can live only about two more months. Now
I’d like my medical cardiologist, Dr. Ernest L. Wilkinson, to present his views
about my health.’”
Dr. Wilkinson reaffirmed President Kimball’s statement, explaining that “because
of congestive failure, occasioned by the extra workload on the heart, strained
with an incompetent aortic valve and a high-grade obstruction in the most
important artery in the heart, spontaneous recovery would be unlikely and death
would ensue in the not-too-distant future.”
Then President Kimball called on Dr. Nelson to speak, asking, “What can
cardiac surgery offer?”
Dr. Nelson said, “I indicated that the operation, if it were to be done,
would be a compound surgical procedure consisting of two components. First, the
defective aorist valve would require removal and replacement with a prosthetic
aortic valve. Second, the left anterior descending coronary artery would have
to be revascularized with a bypass graft.”
President Lee asked, “What would the risks be with such procedures?”
Dr. Nelson replied, “We have no experience doing both operations on
patients in this age group. Therefore, I cannot give you any risk data based on
experience. All I can say is, it would entail extremely high risk.”
Then a weary President Kimball said, “I’m an old man and ready to die.
It is well for a younger man to come to the Quorum and do the work I can no
longer do.”
Elder Nelson described the dramatic reaction of President Lee: “At that
point President Harold B. Lee, speaking for the First Presidency, rose to his
feet, pounded his fist to the desk, and said, ‘Spencer, you have been called!
You are not to die! You are to do everything that you need to do in order to care
for yourself and continue to live.’”
President Kimball responded, “Then I will have the operation performed.” (Spencer Condie, Russell M. Nelson: Father, Surgeon, Apostle [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2003], 153-55)
