Posted 9/5/01 Near-fatal heart attack has a happy ending Not all stories about heart attacks have happy endings. But for more and more patients like Betty Mosier of North Branch, the Fairview Lakes Emergency Departmentís focus on training, teamwork and prompt administration of life-saving therapies is making the difference between life and death. The E.D.ís efforts to increase the speed with which chest pain patients are assessed and clot-busting thrombolytic drugs are administered are paying off in outstanding scores in nationwide studies. Ultimately those high scores translate to lives saved, and Betty Mosierís is one of them. Early on the morning of July 10, Mosier, 54, was working at the Lakes Conoco station in Forest Lake when she began to vomit. She called her manager to say she was very sick and going home. By the time she arrived at her home in North Branch, she was having chest pain. When lying down didnít help, she called 911, but it was too late. Paramedics arrived to find Betty in cardiac arrest. ìI was gone when the ambulance got there,î Betty acknowledges. The crew used its skills, equipment and training to get her heart working again and rushed her to Fairview Lakes Regional Medical Center at Wyoming. Betty does not remember what happened between the time she called 911 and she woke up hours later at Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina with a stent placed in the main artery to her heart ñ the artery that is sometimes called ìthe widow maker.î Paramedics who visited her later told her that her heart had stopped twice more enroute to Wyoming and once more after she arrived. Each time the team brought her back. Thrombolytic drugs were administered to dissolve the clot that was blocking the artery to her heart. A helicopter then flew Betty to Fairview Southdale where emergency angioplasty was performed, and a springlike stent put in place to hold open the artery. ìLater, the paramedic ladies said they couldnít believe they were standing at the hospital talking to me,î said Betty. ìThey said that 95 percent of the people that this happens to donít make it.î Betty returned home to North Branch on July 16 and is back at work part-time. Emergency Department Coordinator Estelle Palmer says that Mosier beat the odds because, ìShe was in the right place at the right time with well-trained personnel on hand to care for her every step of the way.î That good luck was no accident; it was the result of training and hard work. For patients suffering chest pain or other symptoms of heart attack, the Emergency Department at Fairview Lakes Regional Medical Center presently ranks as one of the best places in the nation to go to receive the clot-busting drugs known as thrombolytics. Thrombolytics break up blood clots and stop heart attacks in progress. For the nine-month period from July 2000 to March 30, 2001, a study by the National Registry of Myocardial Infarction (NRMI) ranks Fairview Lakes in the top three percent nationwide in the time it takes to administer thrombolytics to appropriate patients once they enter the Emergency Room door. When using lytics, every second counts; but the drugs are not appropriate for everyone, explains Dave Moen, M.D., medical director of emergency and urgent care. Every potential heart attack patient must first be identified and rapidly assessed before the drug can be administered. Fairview Lakes has learned to do that very quickly. ìThe-door-to-drug time for administering lytics at Fairview Lakes is 16 minutes compared to a national average of 31 minutes among like hospitals,î explains Moen. A difference of 15 minutes can mean the difference between life and death or traumatic disability, say Moen and Julie Herges-Gapstur, R.N., Emergency Department manager. The NRMI study showed that Fairview Lakes also ranked higher than other facilities in several other areas of measurement: ïAdministering aspirin to heart attack patients within 24 hours of arrival ñ Lakes is at the 94th percentile compared to the 80th percentile for like hospitals nationally. ïReceiving beta-blockers on discharge ñ Lakes is at the 80th percentile compared to the 71st percentile for like hospitals. Fairview Lakes scored 100 percent in administering thrombolytics to every patient eligible to receive them from July 1, 2000, to March 31, 2001. That compared to an average 83 percent of eligible patients receiving lytics at like hospitals nationally, says Gapstur. ìTeamwork, timeliness and a keen understanding of the process keep the physicians, nurses and other team members focused on prompt diagnosis and treatment,î adds Gapstur. ìWe are extremely proud of our staff in achieving these outstanding results in a highly respected national study over an extended period of time,î said Moen. ìHigh marks like this require a concerted effort by everyone to ensure that our patients consistently receive life-saving care.î Mosier is so grateful to be alive that sheís quit smoking, eats healthy and goes to cardiac rehab to exercise three times a week. ©Post Review