Dr. Roehll didn't think that the emergency code 99 was for him, until medical staff rushed to his bedside. He looked over at the EKG monitor and saw his heart activity was going 180 beats per minute, a sign that the condition could become fatal very soon. But they were able to get his heart back to a regular rhythm and once he was stabilized, Dr. Roehll was checked into the hospital for further testing.

The medical term for Dr. Roehll's fast heart rhythm is ventricular tachycardia, and if left untreated it can be life-threatening. At the hospital, Dr. Roehll decided to call Dr. William Abraham at Ohio State, a longtime colleague and someone he had referred his own patients to before. Over the phone, Dr. Abraham told Dr. Roehll that he better come to Columbus right away.

At Ohio State, Dr. Abraham brought in Dr. Raul Weiss, a cardiac electrophysiologist who specializes in finding electrical problems of the heart. They began running tests on Dr. Roehll, but to their surprise could not find the source of his irregular heartbeat anywhere inside his heart. To take care of the immediate problem, they implanted a defibrillator and after a few days Dr. Roehll returned home.

Over time, his defibrillator began going off. Worried his heart would fail again, he decided to go back to Ohio State. This time, Dr. Weiss was determined to track down the source. After hours of careful exploration, he discovered the problem was actually coming from outside Dr. Roehll's heart, which is highly unusual. Isolating it would take very specialized technique, but the doctors were able to do it all in one procedure.

When Dr. Roehll woke up from the procedure, he was relieved to hear they had fixed the problem. Since then, he's been able to monitor any heartbeat irregularity over the phone, with a state-of-the-art device that Dr. Roehll just holds over his heart, so it can transmit information to Ohio State. His heart function has actually become stronger over time, which means he is busier than ever, and back to seeing his own patients.

Dr. Roehll comes from a generation of physicians who believe in taking the time to get to know each of their patients, and that's why he always refers his patients to Ohio State. According to him, they practice medicine the way it should be done-with compassion and personal treatment.