Patient Care Story - Kevin Mundier
Kevin Mundier, a 37 year-old tow truck driver, was chatting with a friend at work between calls when he began to experience severe chest pains. Before long, it was almost too much for him to bear. "It was pain that I have never felt before. I have had fractured bones and thought that hurt, but this was worse," described Kevin.
It turned out that Kevin was having a STEMI heart attack and is alive to speak about it today thanks to Code STEMI Project, a collaboration between SJHC, St. Michaels's Hospital and Toronto Emergency Medical Services.
When a patient from the catchment area served by St. Joe's suffers an ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), they receive the right level of care by being transferred to St. Mike's by Toronto EMS for a life saving primary percutaneous coronary intervention. After the procedure at St. Mike's, all patients are transferred back to St. Joe's where they receive the remainder of their care and follow up with a SJHC cardiologist.
"Our partnership in providing this care to SJHC patients has been very successful to date. The physicians and staff involved from our Emergency Department and the Coronary Care Unit have done an exceptional job to make this all happen," said Silvana Biscaro, Program Director, Emergency, Critical Care and Access Services.
Advanced level paramedics have been trained to test for STEMIs by taking a 12-lead ECG in the ambulance itself so that once a STEMI has been detected the ambulance can bypass SJHC to head directly to St. Michael's Hospital for a life-saving angioplasty. It's this spirit of collaboration that makes the program so encouraging for the roughly 1,200 STEMI patients in the Greater Toronto Area every year.
"I know this project works. It wasn't something that I was expecting to be part of, but I am happy to still be here because it saved my life," Kevin said.