Pat Paton: A Visionary for Patients
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atricia Rae Berg appeared a bit shy when she was growing up in Logansport, Indiana, but by high school, she already showed the leadership qualities that set her apart. “She was a determined person,” Judy Simpson says of Pat Paton, her 15-month younger sibling with whom she founded what became the Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA). “That’s why she survived as long as she did.” Pat’s journey with pulmonary hypertension (PH) began in the late 1970s, about 10 years before her 1987 diagnosis. At the time, she her husband Jerry were raising their daughter Julie and son Mike in Zionsville, Indiana, an affluent Indianapolis suburb. Pat left her nursing career to manage two Dairy Queen restaurants that had been in Jerry’s family. They supported the high school students who worked for them with college scholarships. They participated in civic and community organizations. Pat was known for her innovative approach. When Dairy Queen sent franchisees whole candy bars to break up and mix with ice cream to make Blizzards, Pat triple-wrapped the chocolate in plastic and drove her car over them to break them more easily. “She ran everything in Zionsville,” Judy says. “When she and Jerry moved to Florida, she ran everything there, too. Wherever she went, she took charge.” new challenge AA new challenge Cardiologist Michael McGoon, M.D., met Pat and Jerry when they came to Mayo Clinic in Minnesota after Pat’s diagnosis. Pat was stunned and understandably fearful, Dr. McGoon recalls. “There was no question that the diagnosis was correct and her degree of PH was severe.”
But Pat and her family didn’t see her six-month to two-year prognosis as “an immutable act of fate.” They saw it as a challenge to be addressed head-on. Judy recalls one of Pat’s questions for the Mayo Clinic doctors. She asked what it would be like if she died of PH. When they told her she probably would die from right heart failure, she didn’t want to drive any more. She was afraid she might injure someone if her heart gave out. But after 18 months, Judy’s husband, Ed Simpson, asked Pat, “When are you going to start thinking about living, not dying?” Standing out Standing out In those early visits to Mayo, Pat and Dr. McGoon developed what would become a lifetime friendship.
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