|
Neil Trott could well be a poster boy for heart-healthy behaviors.
The 58-year-old Coralville, Iowa businessman doesn't smoke, watches his diet, and exercises regularly. What's more, he has no family history of heart disease.
No wonder he didn't associate the wrist pain he was feeling with anything heart-related. It felt like a pinched nerve and didn't involve the chest, at least initially.
The pain first occurred as he trained for RAGBRAI, the annual bicycle ride across Iowa. Although it subsided before the ride began, the pain returned during the ride and progressively worsened.
"It still hadn't crossed my mind that it was anything but a nerve," he says.
. Trott finished RAGBRAI and the pain went away, only to return a week later. This time, he made a doctor's appointment to get things checked out.
The clinic visit seemed to verify that his heart was fine. However, as he and his wife, Joyce, were leaving the clinic, the pain returned … with a vengeance.
"On a scale of one to 10," Trott says, "I'd call it a 12."
The Trotts headed straight for the Emergency Treatment Center at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, where they received what they regard as textbook emergency care for a heart attack.
Following a rapid initial evaluation, the UI Chest Pain Center team hooked Trott to an EKG machine (which documented the heart attack) and escorted him by wheelchair into a procedure room.
Within minutes, a care team headed by cardiologist James Rossen, MD, began a catheterization procedure to place a cardiac stent (a wire metal mesh tube used to keep open a blocked artery) in his chest. The stent spared Trott's life and enabled him to return home after two nights in the hospital.
Today, recalling news reports indicating the average ER visit in the U.S. takes four hours, Trott appreciates every precious minutes of the care he received.
"I was in the recovery area 42 minutes after we arrived at the hospital," he says. "That's remarkable."
Trott adds that he and Joyce were pleasantly surprised by the service they encountered. "We expected great care but the friendliness of the staff and the quality of the whole experience was first-rate," he says.
UI Heart and Vascular Center cardiologist Theresa Brennan, MD, says the outcome reflects excellent teamwork. "It's what allows us to provide rapid and excellent care to our patients every day," she says.
Eric Dickson, MD, head of Emergency Medicine, says Trott's experience exemplifies the ETC's commitment to high-quality care, excellent outcomes, and great service.
"We are dedicated to cultivating a service-oriented culture of care," he says.
Trott, meanwhile, has dedicated himself to a full recovery.
"The entire experience awakened me to the fact that the symptoms of heart disease may not always be the classic things we think about, like chest pain," he says.
His rehabilitation schedule includes regular treadmill workouts and heart health education sessions at the hospital's Cardiovascular Health, Assessment, Management, and Prevention Service (CHAMPS).
His follow-up physician team includes Brennan and UI Family Care family medicine physician Britt Marcussen, MD.
For more information about heart care services at UI Hospitals and Clinics, patients and family members should call UI Health Access and ask for UI Heart and Vascular Center.
Physicians should call UI Consult.
—Michael Sondergard
|
