Posted 1/23/2009
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| Ohio State's regional STEMI program partners with MedFlight to treat heart attack patients. The team includes Sharon Ball, flight nurse; Lee Johnston, pilot; Dusty Bainter, communication specialist; Jim Evans, flight paramedic; Sharon Hammond, STEMI nurse coordinator; and Ernest Mazzaferri Jr., MD, FACC, medical director of Ohio State's STEMI Program. |
Program aims for rapid response for heart attack victims
While Karl Knisley was washing his truck in October of 2007, he thought his back pain was just arthritis. But when the 70-year-old retiree from Ashley, Ohio, got sick to his stomach, he suddenly realized it was a heart attack.
Although Knisley didn’t know it at the time, a program recently implemented at Ohio State’s Medical Center was about to save his life.
Making the Call
“I called 911, and the ambulance folks did a 12-lead EKG on me,” Knisley recalls. “When they saw the strip, they called MedFlight. The ambulance met the helicopter at a local park, and the MedFlight team immediately knew that I needed to go to Ohio State’s University Hospital.”
Knisley’s test results indicated that a certain segment of the EKG pattern—the “ST” segment—was elevated. This is called a STEMI, an ST-elevated myocardial infarction. “In heart attack victims with a STEMI, an artery that supplies blood to the heart muscle is 100
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Ask Your Advocate
Rupal Oza, MD
Q: What are the symptoms of a heart attack for women?
A: The most common symptom for both women and men is some type of pain, pressure or discomfort in the chest. For women, however, there are often other symptoms. These may include shortness of breath; abdominal pain that may feel like heartburn, nausea or vomiting; sweating; lightheadedness or dizziness; unexplained fatigue; and discomfort in the neck, jaw, shoulder or upper back. Women should discuss these symptoms with their primary care physician as soon as possible, so that the appropriate tests can be done on time.
Schedule an appointment at OSU Rardin Family Practice or with Dr. Oza by calling 1-800-293-5123.
| percent blocked, and it happens in a matter of minutes,” says Ernest Mazzaferri Jr., MD, FACC, medical director of Ohio State’s STEMI Program. “For these patients, the faster we open the blood vessel, the less the heart muscle is damaged and the better the outcome.”
Exceeding National Standards
Ohio State’s Medical Center and the Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital have implemented a regional STEMI program. The program includes a multidisciplinary, in-hospital STEMI alert team available around the clock for immediate patient care.
“The goal is to provide treatment to cardiac patients in less than 60 minutes from arrival, which far surpasses the 90-minute national standard,” says Anthony Orsini, cardiac catheterization lab imaging manager. “Through coordinated scheduling and communication, internal and external teams respond to a cardiac emergency. The internal team prepares the room for the patient while the external team is en route. This allows the procedure to begin immediately upon arrival of the cath lab team.”
“After our helicopter landed on the hospital’s roof, they took me straight to the cath lab,” recalls Knisley, “Within just a few minutes, they had the catheter in me and had cleared out the blockage, which was almost 100 percent.”
Since his heart attack, Knisley has undergone stress tests and an angiogram. His doctors tell him everything looks good. “I’m still hanging in there ticking and doing just fine,” he reports, but his advice to others is this: “Don’t hesitate to call 911 because you’re not sure. I almost waited too long.”
Group Effort
The Ohio State Medical Center’s regional STEMI program includes collaborative efforts and education initiatives with regional EMS units and hospitals. “Our educational efforts focus on the recognition of STEMIs through 12-lead EKGs, and the need for coronary intervention as quickly as possible,” says Sharon Hammond, RN, STEMI nurse coordinator. “Additionally, our STEMI Alert System allows EMS to directly activate our catheterization lab, so patients can bypass the Emergency Department and go straight to treatment.”
“We know that time is muscle,” says Brent Staley, Morrow County EMS supervisor and one of the emergency responders on the scene when Karl Knisley had his heart attack. “The STEMI protocols help identify which patients should transfer to a facility like OSUMC that can treat acute cardiac problems in a timely manner.”
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