MISSISSIPPI TRAVELERS ENDURE BYPASS SURGERY

Douglas and Laura Orchard got more than they bargained for two weeks ago when they docked their yacht in Cape Girardeau.

Here merely to refuel, Orchard instead received a quadruple bypass operation, and his wife got the scare of her life. Now the couple worry that the cost of the operation, which probably won't be covered by their native England's social-health-care system, will end their boating days.

"My heart was a time bomb waiting to go off," Orchard said. "I had no inkling until then that there was a problem. I was a little breathless from time to time, but I thought it was just old age."

The couple were on a round-the-world tour on their 44-foot yacht. They set out across the Atlantic years ago, spending the last five in the Caribbean. They began a tour of the United States and Canada in May, sailing up the Atlantic coast into Canada and down the Mississippi River.

Orchard, 70, said he didn't notice any problems until Oct. 25, when early-morning chest pains hit as the boat sailed south from a Cape Girardeau dock. The pains soon became severe, and he told his wife to turn the boat around while he radioed for help.

Dock-worker Charles Brown responded to Orchard's call, helping him to Southeast Missouri Hospital. There, doctors determined Orchard had blocked arteries in his heart and would need a quadruple bypass operation to save his life.

He received the operation Nov. 1 and was out of the hospital less than a week later. Scottish nurse Erica McBride opened her home to the couple, and they will stay there until Orchard is able to fly back to England.

It would seem like a happy ending to a potential tragedy, but the Orchards have several worries about the operation. While Orchard's physical health may be restored, his financial well-being is in danger.

In England, the national health-care system would have paid for his operation, even if he had to wait for several weeks to get it. Here, the system means nothing.

"We took out private insurance in England because I knew health costs in Canada and the United States were astronomical," Orchard said. "To our dismay, we have discovered that the amount we were advised to take out is nowhere near enough. If I have to pay for the whole thing, we will be wiped out and have to sell the yacht."

While yachting around the world could be an expensive hobby, Orchard explained that the boat was his home, although he maintains a tiny apartment in Worthing, Sussex-by-the-Sea, England. Only his 20-plus years with a commercial airline allows him to fly back at a discount rate to his native country and visit with his family.

Southeast Missouri Hospital Administrator Jim Wente said his staff is working closely with Orchard's health-care and insurance representatives in England to get payment worked out.

"We want Mr. Orchard to get the maximum benefits he is entitled to," Wente said. "The hospital will work with him on the outstanding balance, and we will be reasonable. We are just delighted that he did so well coming from surgery."

Orchard is recovering rapidly, looking tan and healthy and doing his simple exercises to build strength. He and his wife will return to England in about two weeks for three months of recovery. Meanwhile, the yacht will sit in storage on the East Coast.

"How could we ever repay the kindness of the people in Cape Girardeau?" Laura Orchard said, remembering visits from hospital staff and members of local churches. "I hope we will have the opportunity to do something nice for people some day."

The Orchards said, health and finances allowing, they will begin paying off their emotional debt to Cape Girardeau residents by giving trips on their yacht to various doctors and nurses. They intend to finish their trip around the world, possibly meeting up with members of the Royal Air Force Yachting Club in the Caribbean in December 1995.

"From now on, if I ever get depressed about the state of the world and how cruel people can be, our visit to Cape Girardeau will flash into my mind," Orchard said. "This experience has brought tears to my eyes."