Dr. Bartolome Kairuz says his lucky day was Sept. 22. That's the day he nearly died from internal bleeding from a ruptured artery.

The 80-year-old physician, an avid fitness buff, was exercising in a favorite gym.

"I lifted 40 pounds with my left arm and I felt this unimaginable pain in my back," he said. He collapsed and blacked out.

A friend saw it happen.

"He was one of my patients," Kairuz said. "He knew to call 911."

Emergency room doctors at St. Anthony's Medical Center diagnosed what happened and got him in surgery.

"If they hadn't worked so quickly, I wouldn't be here now."

When Kairuz awakened, he learned that he was a rare survivor of an aneurysm that had ruptured near his aorta just below his abdomen.

"I was lucky to be alive," he said.

An aneurysm is a bulge in a blood vessel wall weakened most often by vascular disease. The internal bleeding from a rupture of a bulge is often fatal.

Kairuz also had two other aneurysms that hadn't burst.

"These were massive aneurysms," said Dr. Brian Peterson, the vascular surgeon who worked on Kairuz. The operation took four hours and about 18 units of blood and blood products.

The survival rate of a burst aneurysm like Kairuz's is 5 percent to 10 percent, Peterson said. That's why Kairuz says Sept. 22 was his lucky day. After surgery, he woke up.

NO SYMPTOMS

The condition is deadly because it happens fast and often without symptoms, Peterson said. Symptoms such as backaches or stomach ache often are disregarded, he said.

"I had backaches, but I figured at my age, that was because of exercise," Kairuz said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 1.3 percent of men over age 60 have aortic aneurysms; that rises to 12.5 percent for men over 75. The top risks are a family history and smoking, the CDC says.

"If you've smoked more than 100 cigarettes in your lifetime — you've been a smoker or you just smoked a cigarette now and then, you're at higher risk," Peterson said. "No one really knows why. But that's a risk factor."

Other risks are the same as for any cardiovascular disease, Peterson said, with family history at the top, then high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol and age.

Still, Kairuz had no risk factors other than his age. He survived because the rupture was small and he got to the hospital and had surgery fast, Peterson said. By being in good shape, his body tolerated the rapid blood loss, he said.

MORE MALES STRICKEN

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute reports that about 13,000 to 15,000 people a year die from the condition. Most are men.

Health agencies report that the death rate has been dropping because of the SAAAVE Act of 2006 — Screening for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms Very Efficiently.

When people join the Medicare program on the first year of eligibility, they can get one ultrasound screening to check for the condition during their Welcome to Medicare physical exam, Peterson said.

Otherwise the condition often is discovered when doctors are looking for something else, such as kidney stones, he said.

"The word needs to get out that that's a benefit," Peterson said. "A lot of people and many doctors don't know it's available."

It's important because a rupture is preventable, he said.

"If we find (an aortic aneurysm) and repair it, people go on to live much longer lives," he said.

He said he does one to two procedures a week to repair aortic aneurysms, mostly by inserting a stent into the weak spot in the artery.

Medical organizations say the SAAAVE Act needs to be expanded to be available as a preventative screening for anyone age 65 to 75.

Even with today's restrictions, "If everyone knew of the (benefit) we could help another 200,000 people a year," nationally, Peterson said.

'WORST PATIENTS'

Kairuz confessed that he had never been screened. "I know I should have been checked, but doctors are the worst patients," he chuckled.

Since the surgery, Kairuz has returned to an abbreviated work schedule. He walks 3 miles three times a week and awaits the all-clear from his doctor so he can start running 5 miles three times a week like he used to.

These days, he's rethinking his priorities. He may do more traveling with his wife of 45 years, Jane Ann Kairuz.

"This makes you think," he said. "I'm just glad I'm still here."