You’re going to feel so good when you’re done with this—it’s like a car wash for your insides!” the scheduling person on the phone told Barnes Barton. After several years of putting it off, Barnes had finally gotten around to scheduling an executive physical. “At first I didn’t necessarily see a reason for it,” he says. “I’m only 47 and I’ve always been pretty healthy. I run five or six days a week and have for decades.” But in the spring of 2024 Barnes’s blood pressure spiked and it prompted him to take advantage of the benefit he knew he had through Healthnetwork to schedule an executive physical at one of the best hospitals in the country. He opted to go to Cleveland Clinic. “Because of how they schedule it, I could fly in one morning, get everything done, and be home that same evening.”

He made the appointment for September. And sure enough, as he went through the day at Cleveland Clinic, Barnes decided the person who scheduled him was right: He did feel good, like he was getting on top of his health. The appointments ran seamlessly together and Barnes felt like he was checking all the boxes. His last test of the day was a CT calcium score, a scan that looks for calcium deposits in the coronary arteries. “I’m going to predict you get a zero,” said the physician. “Is that good?” asked Barnes. The doctor explained that a zero is what you want to see, meaning there are no blockages in your arteries, which would indicate a risk of heart attack.

As Barnes was about to check out and head home, the doctor caught up with him to give an update. “You did get a zero,” she reported. “However, the CT scan showed some dilation in your aortic root. You should get some additional testing done.”

Barnes thanked her and headed home. “I didn’t think much more about it,” he says. After all his score was zero, and that was good, right? “I didn’t realize at the time that the word ‘dilation’ is basically an aneurysm.”

Back home, Barnes did some research and realized this could be something serious. He decided to go back to Cleveland for follow-up. “If I had a heart issue, I felt good about being in the hands of Cleveland Clinic.” In the meantime, Barnes tried to put it out of his mind. “I didn’t worry about it too much. I wasn’t going to try to diagnose myself or research it to death. I’d rather stay plugged into my family and work.”

Back in Cleveland a few months later, Barnes once again went through a series of efficiently scheduled appointments and tests. By the end of the day, some unpleasant news was confirmed: Barnes would need to have surgery on his heart. While he had somewhat mentally prepared for that possibility, he says two things came as a surprise: First, “I didn’t realize it would happen so soon.” He was told the surgery should be done within the year. Second, “There was no endoscopic version available to me.” Because the aneurysm was in the aortic root, right next to the aortic valve, Barnes’s only option was open heart surgery.

There’s never a convenient time to have surgery. But as Barnes looked at the year ahead, he began to feel a sense of urgency. His twins were in their senior year of high school, and he wanted to be present for their graduations and soak up all the precious time with them over the summer that he could. “At that point I went from second to fifth gear,” he says. “I wanted to get it scheduled, talk with my kids, and get it done.”

With assistance from Healthnetwork, Barnes sought out a second opinion, which confirmed everything Cleveland Clinic had recommended. He scheduled the surgery for March 27, 2025. The surgery went smoothly, and when it was over Barnes learned that his situation was even more dire than he had realized. The wall of his aorta next to the valve was paper thin—too thin to withstand the constant pressure of blood flow much longer. “It would have been a matter of time,” the surgeon told Barnes.

“I feel like I got a series of miracles,” says Barnes. “First, there was this blood pressure situation last year. It was nothing significant, but it was the impetus to get the executive physical done. And because Cleveland Clinic included that CT calcium test—which is not even designed to give signs of a healthy aortic root—I got the miracle of knowing something very important that I could do something proactive about. Finally, to be able to go to the best heart hospital in the world with a specialist who does these kind of surgeries all the time—I feel very fortunate and grateful.”

Today, six months after the surgery, Barnes, who has been a runner his whole life, is back to running several miles most days. Over the spring and summer before his kids left for college he was able to go on runs with both of them. “Amazingly there’s a low likelihood I’ll have to change anything about my lifestyle,” he says. “I feel very blessed to be associated with Healthnetwork. You’re never guaranteed a day. But there are a lot of things I have left to do in my life, and I’m excited for the next chapter.”