GRANGER — By December 2024, Diane Krill had experienced her fourth heart attack as a result of her underlying condition, spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD), which occurs when a tear forms in a wall of a heart artery, according to Mayo Clinic.
Four heart attacks in about 20 years was not a rate Krill was comfortable with. “I knew something was wrong,” she said.
Krill, a board member of Beacon Health Foundation, spoke with her cardiologist and requested a second opinion. Her cardiologist reminded her of Beacon’s partnership with Mayo Clinic Care Network — a partnership that has since changed her life.
In May 2016, Beacon Health System first became a member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network and was the first health system in Indiana to join the care network, according to a June 1 press release.
The historic partnership — which celebrated 10 years Tuesday, June 2 — allows patients, like Krill, to get the specialized care they need without necessarily having to travel to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
“After the fourth [heart attack], I just, for peace of mind, I had to do something different.” Krill said. “The first option was, ‘Well, let’s talk to Mayo [Clinic]. We have a relationship with Mayo, so let’s utilize that.”
She was pleasantly surprised to hear from the clinic just two days later. In addition to the clinic’s punctuality and accessibility, Krill said, many of her initial intake appointments were virtual, which “was so easy.”
Dr. Michelle Bache, Elkhart General Hospital’s vice president of medical affairs, is glad Krill was able to make use of the eConsults with Mayo Clinic specialists, calling them the “cornerstone” of the partnership.
“We leverage eConsults and utilize them to connect our patients locally with an expert at the Mayo Clinic — anytime that things are a little bit more complex and that we feel the Mayo Care experts can add something to the diagnosis and treatment plan for the patient,” Bache said.
At her first in-person appointment at Mayo Clinic months later, Krill would come to find out just how complex her diagnosis was. Following three days of “intense testing,” Mayo Clinic experts discovered a secondary condition: fibromuscular dysplasia, a condition that causes the medium-sized arteries in the body to narrow and grow larger, according to Mayo Clinic’s website.
The early detection, however, in conjunction with reassurance that she would not pass these conditions to her daughter or two granddaughters, was just the peace of mind Krill had been looking for.
“When I left Mayo after the third day, I left feeling very positive, not only about myself, but about my family — and that I would be able to watch my granddaughters grow up,” she said.
Hearing Krill’s triumphant story is all doctors like Bache — a personal friend of Krill’s — and Dr. Mark Larson, the medical director for the Mayo Clinic Care Network, hoped for when beginning this partnership a decade ago.
“[Krill’s] story is a perfect example of what this relationship is all about. I love touring new facilities, seeing a new MRI scans or a hospital room that’s been redecorated, but it doesn’t impact any of us as much — I am a clinician — as hearing a patient’s story,” Larson said.
“Medical care is so complex, ” he added. “We’re all anxious and worried about our own care and the care of our families. Hearing Diane’s story about the collaboration that occurred between her and a Beacon cardiologist, and a Mayo specialist cardiologist, I think that’s what this relationship truly is all about.”
Email South Bend Tribune summer 2026 intern Katherine Hill at KTHill@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Beacon Health System and Mayo Clinic celebrate decade partnership
Reporting by Katherine Hill, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
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By Katherine Hill, South Bend Tribune | USA TODAY Network
