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Terri Rohde wasn’t sure what she was experiencing early one morning was a heart attack. The pain started in her shoulder but then increasingly radiated to her heart. Terri used to have high blood pressure that she maintained as normal with a low-fat, low sodium diet and weight loss. On this morning, she self-monitored her blood pressure and it was higher than normal and her heart beat was irregular, which concerned her. She searched the internet regarding her heart pain symptoms and the information she found urged her not to make her own way to a hospital emergency department, but instead to immediately call 9-1-1.
As part of a program called the Toronto Heart Attack Collaborative, EMS ambulance crew, St. Joseph’s Health Centre and St. Michael’s Hospital have partnered so patients have access to the right care, at the right time and in the right place. High level EMS crew are trained to do an electrocardiogram and interpret the readings to see if a patient is having a ST elevation myocardial infraction (STEMI) heart attack.
EMS determined Terri was having a STEMI and transferred her directly to St. Michael’s, which has a catheterization lab. An interventional cardiologist performed an emergency angioplasty to unblock the occluded (blocked) blood vessel. Terri had originally called 9-1-1 around 2 a.m. and by 5 a.m. she was recovering from the angioplasty at St. Michael’s. A few hours later, Terri was transferred to her community hospital St. Joe’s for her follow-up care.
Dr. Mark Fisher, her St. Joe’s cardiologist explains, “The procedures are centralized and not every hospital has access to a catheterization laboratory. That’s why we’ve partnered with St. Michael’s, but everything else happens at St. Joe’s.”
Terri was treated at St. Joe’s Cardiac Care Unit and was an inpatient at our hospital for three days following her heart attack. Clinicians gave her medications for her condition and monitored her blood pressure. She was provided with education on heart health and helped to become ambulatory before she could be safely sent home. “I was treated phenomenally well at St. Joe’s. The nurses were so kind,” Terri said.
While most heart attack patients are still men, more women are having them, she said.
Terri was already on a low-sodium, low-fat diet and monitoring her blood pressure, but the high-stress job she had at the time may have contributed to her heart attack, she said.
“As more women are involved in high level jobs, I think their stress levels will increase and we’ll see more risk of heart attacks in women,” said Terri.
Terri’s heart attack was in May, 2009 and Dr. Fisher continues to monitor her progress with check-ups. In the end the speedy care Terri received helped with a complete recovery. Two years after her surgery and after care, Terri, now 63, has no permanent heart damage.