Playhouse actor begins slow road to recovery

By Guy D’Astolfo

For a while, doctors weren’t sure if David El’Hatton would survive.

YOUNGSTOWN — David El’Hatton was a force to be reckoned with on the Youngstown Playhouse stage, delivering powerful performances in memorable productions such as “Glengarry Glen Ross” (2008) and “Sweeney Todd” (2007).

But although he was the picture of strength and vigor on stage, El’Hatton was short of breath when out of the spotlight.

It was a problem he had lived with for a decade. Lacking insurance, he never bothered to get it checked by a doctor.

“In ‘Titanic,’ I would hide behind people [on stage] to catch my breath,” said El’Hatton, referring to the spectacular 2008 musical at the Playhouse.

When he finally did see a doctor this summer, X-rays revealed a blocked pulmonary artery that was putting his life in danger. Alarmed, his doctor immediately sent him to St. Elizabeth’s in Boardman for what was to be the first of a 101-day hospital stint. El’Hatton spent 50 of those days in a drug-induced coma at the Cleveland Clinic.

At first, it didn’t look like he would pull through, and doctors pondered an emergency lung and heart transplant.

But slowly, El’Hatton, who is 38, began responding to treatment.

He came home in mid-October, and is recuperating.

Last week, he sat down with The Vindicator to discuss his ordeal.

El’Hatton used to spend most of his time at the Playhouse, where he helped the executive director run the theater and also was an actor and director. When the Playhouse canceled its season last fall because of its much-chronicled financial woes, El’Hatton suddenly had a lot of time on his hands.

He got a full-time job with health insurance benefits — something he had gone without for a long time.

On July 6, he went to see a doctor for a checkup and to get a prescription for a nagging cough. That night, he was in St. Elizabeth’s Boardman hospital. He would not return to his home until Oct. 16.

“The doctor [at St. Elizabeth’s] told me ‘you have a tumor in your pulmonary artery.’ I was sent to Cleveland Clinic that night, and it turned out that it wasn’t a tumor, but a blood clot the size of a hockey puck,” said El’Hatton. “It had shut down my right lung and the right side of my heart. The doctors said they’d never seen anything like it.”

The massive blockage, which actually was hundreds of clots, was surgically cleared and a filter was installed in the artery. But El’Hatton developed a staph infection and what was supposed to be a two-week stay became a crisis of indefinite duration.

At one point, doctors said he would need a heart and lung transplant.

“I was put in a drug-induced coma,” said El’Hatton. On three occasions during the ensuing weeks, his life signs dropped so low that a “code blue” [cardiopulmonary arrest] was invoked and doctors rushed to resuscitate him.

El’Hatton still vividly recalls the strange dreams he had while comatose. “I was wandering in the snow in New Hampshire [in one dream],” he said. “It was probably at the time that I was being packed in ice [as part of resuscitation efforts]. I was tired and couldn’t go on. I cleared a spot in the snow so that I could lay down and die.”

Afterward, El’Hatton was given a tracheotomy and could hardly speak for weeks on end. He recalled the frustration of trying to communicate. “There are only a few things that you could possibly ask for when you are stuck in a hospital bed. I would say, ‘I need a bedpan’ and they would respond ‘You want to go to Afghanistan?’”

When he was finally able to speak clearly again, the first thing he told the personnel was “you people really need to learn how to read lips.”

Slowly but surely, El’Hatton’s condition began to improve, and the need for transplant surgery disappeared.

“Doctors don’t fully know what caused [the massive blood clot] and might never know,” he said.

El’Hatton left Cleveland Clinic in September and was taken back to St. Elizabeth’s to begin recuperation. But he developed a breathing problem and had to be life-flighted back to Cleveland Clinic. The problem turned out to be an infection where a catheter had been inserted. He was later returned to St. Elizabeth’s, where he underwent a couple weeks of rehab. Because he was progressing so rapidly, he was released from St. E’s a few days earlier than scheduled.

El’Hatton is now at home, but he cannot walk for long distances and suffers from severe soreness in his joints. Function is returning to his once-unused lung and both sides of his heart. However, he still has high blood pressure in his lungs and his heart has been damaged.

He has lost 30 pounds and is also losing some of his hair.

Life is still a long way from normal for El’Hatton and his girlfriend, Kelly DeMarco, who are struggling to pay medical and prescription bills that cost hundreds of dollars each month. He has been terminated by his employer and is receiving Social Security, while DeMarco works long hours as a waitress. El’Hatton goes to rehabilitative therapy twice a week and takes eight or nine prescription pills each day.

He is taking things one day at a time, and has no timetable for getting back into the theater.

“I still can’t sing. I can’t get my breath,” he said. “Time will tell. I feel fine, but the doctors say I’m still very sick.”

El’Hatton actually did step on a stage since his release. On Oct. 31, he gave the introductory remarks before the opening night performance of “Dracula” at the Playhouse.

Because his physical appearance has changed, the audience did not recognize him at first. “But after a while, the people that knew me realized it was me and began to clap,” he said.

El’Hatton also had a small role in the radio play “War of the Worlds,” which aired live Halloween weekend from the WKBN-AM 570 studio.