Chiropractor expects to reopen practice next month

For more than 39 years, Dr. Brett Ohman was the first person many Greybull residents called when they felt pain in their bones, nerves, muscles, tendons and ligaments.  As a chiropractor, he’s the one who took the pain away.  If he couldn’t, he’d direct them to someone who would.
All that changed June 4, 2023, when in an instant, Ohman went from being the healthy one who heals to the one in need of healing. A heart attack followed by triple-bypass surgery which led to a stroke left the doctor clinging to life in a Billings, Mont., hospital bed while his stunned wife Cindy and their son Brandon sent up prayers for a miracle.
Three months have passed since those dark, difficult days. Ohman is not only feeling much better, but he’s on the verge of reopening his clinic. He credits the wonders of modern medicine, the care he received at a rehabilitation clinic and the loving support he received from his family.  
But most of all, he is thankful to God for giving him his life and his purpose back.
“I’m supposed to be the one taking care of people — people shouldn’t be taking care of me,” he said.
The beginning
Ohman was born into a family of healers.  His dad was a chiropractor who served the Lovell area for many years. So was his uncle, who started a practice in Cody but ended up in Powell.  
Ohman continued the family tradition, opening his Greybull practice in April 1984 in what is now Brandy’s Candies. In 1993, he moved out of that building and into an office on First Avenue North, where it remains to this day.
One of Ohman’s passions in life is fishing, and on Sunday, June 4, he’d just finished washing his boat.  A fishing trip to Glendo planned, but first he had to take a shower and go to church.
“I was having a hard time breathing and I was sweating profusely,” he recalled. “I figured I’d just overworked, so I sat down.  When 10 minutes passed and it hadn’t let up, I told (Cindy), ‘I’m having a heart attack.’”
Cindy drove him to the hospital in Cody, where Brandon works as an X-ray technician.  He was on duty that day and took his father’s X-ray.  An EKG confirmed that Ohman had suffered a major heart attack. They gave him “clot buster,” loaded him in a helicopter and sent him to Billings.
When it landed, he was rushed into the catheterization lab where they tried to install stints but were unable to do so.  He was given a temporary pacemaker, and two days later, underwent triple bypass surgery.
“I didn’t get frightened at that time,” Ohman said. “I was rolling with the punches. Normally I heal up well and after the surgery, I was recovering quickly — to the point where they were talking about letting me out of the hospital.  But then I decided to have a stroke.”
It happened on June 10.  The clot buster that had been used after his heart attack couldn’t be used a second time, so doctors went in with a wire to remove the clot. “It was too far up and too dangerous to remove,” he said. “So they upped my blood pressure to push fresh blood into the damaged area, which eventually worked.”   
But it came at a cost. The stroke left Ohman unable to speak and his right hand clenched in a tight fist.
“That’s when I got frightened,” he said. “I couldn’t communicate ... that’s when God stepped in.”
He shared two experiences that he says he’ll never forget.
“Remember the old Etch-A-Sketch where the line would go up and down and straight across? The night I had the stroke, I saw a bright light and a line going up and down, back and forth, just like I was being mended back together.
“When I woke up the next morning, the ICU nurse came and like every morning, asked how i was doing.  I said, “Good,’ and the nurse just jumped back and looked at me, surprised. Two days after that, the surgeon came in.  By that time, I could converse with him.  He just shook his head and said, ‘You were mute when I saw you last.  I didn’t think you’d speak again. To be honest, I didn’t think you’d make it through. You’re surprising everyone.’”
Soon after came more proof.  “Brandon had to go back to work, and when he left I told him, ‘I’m going to be better tomorrow.’  I know people will think it’s weird, but that night, I saw another light. It was just a different color — red and orange. But I saw lines again, doing the same patterns, stitching me together. The next morning, I could open my hand.”
Rehab
Ohman spent 12 days in the hospital and another 12 at the Rehabilitation Hospital of Montana, where he received physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy that put him on the fast track to recovery.  
He’s back home now, going to therapy three days a week at North Big Horn Hospital and enjoying nice, long walks around Greybull. He has even gone fishing, something he wasn’t sure he’d be able to do again.
“A good friend brought me a fishing rod at the hospital,” he said. “I knew that when I could grip it, I’d be on the water again.”
He went to Yellowtail with his brothers in mid-September and they left with a good one-that-got-away tale.  His oldest brother, who cost them an opportunity to land the day’s biggest fish, will never hear the end of it, he said.
While there were difficult days, Ohman’s determination to reopen his clinic has never wavered.
It’s tentatively set for Oct. 16. His longtime office manager, Christine Kliltzke, is set to return as well.
“I wasn’t going to let this beat me,” he said. “I was always pushing forward, trying to stay positive.   I figured I’d go back to work maybe after the first of the year, but things have been coming around so fast, my doctors have already cleared me to go back.”
He says his strength has returned, and that physically, he can do everything he did before the heart attack.  
Cindy looks at him with admiration. “I praise God every day that I still have a husband,” she said. “It was the roughest month of my life.  After the stroke, Brandon and I didn’t know if he’d ever get back to normal.  We feared the worst - that he’d be wheelchair bound, that we’d need to get a van and revamp the house.
“But this made me fall in love with him all over again. I don’t think I could love him any more. This brought us so close.  I am grateful that the Lord answered our prayers.  Brandon was a rock throughout. In the hospital, he was like a father speaking to his son, giving him encouragement and reminding him who God was.”
While Ohman’s health is good, he will live with some of the lingering effects of the stroke. One of them is Pseudobulbar affect, a neurological condition common in stroke victims. In PBA, there’s a disconnect between the frontal lobe (which controls emotions) and the cerebellum and brain stem (where reflexes are mediated).
“They say it makes you cry, cuss or laugh,” Ohman said. “I cry.”
The stroke also left him with apraxia, a speech disorder that prevents him from articulating properly.
Ohman admits that it’s difficult for him to accept the kindness of others these days without becoming emotional, but that he and his family have been overwhelmed by and are grateful for all the support they’ve received from the community.
For three months, Ohman drew strength from his wife, who drew strength from her son. But all of them drew strength from a higher power.
“God is the only thing that got us through it,” Cindy said.