PUEBLO, Colo. – Reigning Stock Contractor of the Year Chad Berger’s phone has been ringing, buzzing and lighting up all day long.
Phone calls, texts and social media notifications have been constant ever since Berger revealed publically on Wednesday night via the Bismarck Tribune that he will undergo open-heart surgery at Abbot Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis in the next few weeks.
“I can’t keep it charged long enough,” Berger said with a laugh Thursday afternoon.
According to Berger, he originally had not planned to go public with the news that he needed surgery for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a thickening of the heart muscles that makes it hard for the organ to pump blood.
Berger, though, confirmed to PBR.com on Thursday afternoon he is indeed in the process of getting his surgery finalized for either the end of May or first week of June.
“They’re going to go in there and cut all that hardened muscle off of my heart,” Berger said. “And I’ve got two leaky valves – they’re going to fix them while they’re in there.”
Berger has been staying busy with his cattle operation at home in Mandan, North Dakota, to help keep his mind at ease about the upcoming “big surgery” he needs to have.
He plans to approach the surgery as best he can with a Be Cowboy attitude.
“Well, I’m so busy getting these cattle moved and all that grass and stuff that I don’t get a lot of time to think about it, really,” Berger said. “But I just know I have to have it done. It worries the shit out of me. It bothers me that I have to do it, but it’s one of them things that the alternative ain’t worth a shit.
“You have to go at it just like you go after trying to win Stock Contractor of the Year. You have to go in at full blast. That’s the way I’m looking at it.”
THE DIAGNOSIS
Berger was diagnosed in late January with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. He was originally scheduled to undergo surgery in April before it was put on hold because of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak.
The 58-year-old had not been feeling well this past winter, and his condition continued to worsen. Berger would quickly lose his breath, and he was more tired than usual. He had a nagging cough, which he figured was just a nasty winter cold at the time.
It was following the Wrangler Long Live Cowboys Classic, though, when Berger realized something may be seriously wrong. He was traveling back from the Unleash The Beast event in Sacramento, California, when he could barely muster up enough strength to change planes at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
“I couldn’t hardly make it to my next plane,” Berger admitted. “When I got to Minneapolis, I had a hell of a time getting to my next flight. I rode the escalators. Every time I would walk a little ways, get on one of them things and let it take me to the next one.”
Berger had worked endlessly in the summer/fall of 2018 to lose more than 50 pounds and get in better physical shape. He is usually climbing over the bucking chutes to flank his bulls at PBR events, so being physically active was not really a challenge for him.
The sudden struggles led Berger, who has had some cardiovascular issues in the past, to undergo testing at the end of January. He had stents put in his heart 14 years ago, as well as five years ago, so he always takes his cardiac health seriously.
“I just knew,” Berger said. “I’ve had heart troubles. I’ve had stents put in, and I kind of know when things aren’t right.”
This procedure will be much different from anything he has undergone before, Berger explained.
“The best way to explain it to you is, when you go into the weight room to build muscles on your arms, when my heart rate goes up, my heart’s working harder,” Berger said. “It builds more muscle around my heart. With this disease you have, it causes it to build more. Now it’s got so much muscle around it that when my heart rate does go up, my heart closes and traps the blood in my heart. Then when it finally opens back up, it squirts it out like you have your thumb over a water hose. That is the way the doctor explained it to me. It’ll be like pushing your thumb over a garden hose and it sprays out.”
THE SUPPORT
Berger’s daughter, Sadie, said the outpouring of support the family has received Thursday has been overwhelming.
“We have all been kind of emotional today,” Sadie said. “We all have known about it for months, but with all the people reaching out to us today – all of us have had a bunch of messages and calls and stuff – it is emotional because you see the people that are there for you, and it is a major surgery. It is scary and hits home when it is getting close.”
The messages and support have come from all walks of life, Sadie added. She called LeAnn Hart for some advice a while back, and LeAnn has been a source of strength and support.
“It is awesome,” Sadie said of the PBR community. “It is unreal. A lot of it is PBR fans and people are all in this community that have reached out to us. Other stock contractors, bull riders and so many people just reaching out shows you the kind of community we are a part of.”
Chad has not been at the Lazy E Arena these past weeks with the PBR resuming its Unleash The Beast season with closed-to-the-public events.
Doctors have instructed Berger to take it easy in preparation of his upcoming surgery, but going slow has never been a characteristic of Chad Berger.
Not only does Berger lead his Berger Bucking Bulls operation, but he also has thousands of cattle within his beef operation in the Dakotas.
From sunrise to sunset, and usually before and after, Berger is out either at a cattle sale or hard at work at his home office.
Berger was even at a cattle sale in Napoleon, North Dakota, Thursday working some deals for his operation. He will then be in Fort Pierre, South Dakota, and Herreid, South Dakota, on Friday.
The Mandan, North Dakota, bull man would rather be in Guthrie this weekend, but he is working hard to get everything lined up at home seeing as he will not be able to do much at all during his 13-week recovery post-surgery.
“It is because of the surgery why I ain’t there, because I’ve got so much work here that I want to have done before I go (get surgery),” Berger said. “I just can’t afford to leave here. I’m putting out over 3,000 cattle on grass, and that don’t just happen overnight. It just takes a lot of work.”
Berger has had to learn to trust his family and allow others to take more of the responsibilities off his plate as he faces a 13-week recovery process following surgery.
Longtime employees Delbert Nuse and Rex Meier have been handling the bulls at the Lazy E Arena, while his wife, Sarah, and daughter, Sadie, continue to help lead the family business admirably.
“I don’t even know if I could handle not being there without knowing I have such good people behind me in Delbert and Rex taking care of the bulls,” Berger said. “And just to know you have a good workforce behind you makes it a lot easier to go do it.”
Sadie knows it is going to be hard for her father to not go stir crazy following his surgery, but she is proud of her dad for being willing to get the surgery done.
“It is going to be sure hard to keep him from doing the things he wants to do,” Sadie said. “It is a major surgery. We know it is a slow process and it is going to be hard to keep him down, but we know it has to get done.
“I am super confident in him coming back 100% after this. An old friend said to me, ‘Your dad is so strong that he will get through this,’ and I feel the same way. Yeah, he has been through a lot and some setbacks. I don’t know how they say it, but whatever your setback is sets you up for your biggest comeback. We are confident he will pull through great and have a successful surgery and be feeling great afterwards.”
MOVING FORWARD
The news of Berger’s surgery came along with the announcement that his annual Dakota Community Bank and Trust summer PBR event in Bismarck, North Dakota, had been postponed for the time being because of the ongoing COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak.
Berger is hopeful to have answers on whether he and his fellow organizers can reschedule the event for later this summer in a few weeks.
“It’s either going to be in August or September, I’m guessing,” Berger said. “I should know that in a couple weeks, too.”
Berger does have some bovine inspiration in his bullpen, too, as he gets set to take on his heart surgery head-on.
2019 YETI World Champion Bull Smooth Operator overcame a multitude of career-threatening injuries in his career before winning the title last year, and Berger said he will channel that kind of strength heading into his operation and recovery.
For now, Berger will remain at home in Mandan, North Dakota, and keep an eye on his 21 bulls bucking at the Lazy E Arena this weekend from a distance.
Berger will be like many fans, tuning in this weekend on CBS Sports Network and RidePass to catch the action.
Smooth Operator is one of three Berger bulls slated to buck in the championship round Sunday, which airs live on CBS national television at 2 p.m. ET.
Berger will also join Craig Hummer and two-time World Champion Justin McBride on this week’s PBR Keep Riding, presented by Monster Energy, episode to discuss Smooth Operator Sunday night at 7 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network.
“It meant everything to me, but it even meant more that bull to get it,” Berger told them in a pre-taped interview. “Due to the injuries and stuff he had over the years, and to get to that point and for him to win it at 9 years old meant the world for me to have him win it, and for my partners on that bull that have been with me for so many years to get a World Champion Bull. It just meant everything.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko