Butler Health System | Health Link | Summer 2020

One gray August morning in 2019, Rick Staley and his stepson were returning from a rained-out job site near Warren when Rick began to have what he thought was bad indigestion. “I felt it in my sternum,” recalls Rick, who owns a heavy-construction company and lives in Clarion. “Pressure, like I wished I could burp.” But when his jaw started hurting, Rick began to suspect he was having a heart attack. (Luckily, his wife, Cindy, had taught him the signs.) In fact, Rick was having a severe type of heart attack nicknamed the “widow-maker.” Rick had his stepson drive him to Clarion Hospital, where Rick went into cardiac arrest shortly after arrival. The emergency department team, led by Michael Hoh, DO, worked quickly. They used a defibrillator to restart Rick’s heart. “We had to shock him numerous times,” Dr. Hoh says. Rapid care and a tiny heart pump After Dr. Hoh’s emergency team stabilized Rick’s con- dition, a helicopter rushed Rick to Butler Health Sys- tem (BHS). BHS is capable of performing emergency cardiac catheterization to treat heart attacks. Interventional cardiologist Sunder Rao, MD, determined that Rick’s left anterior descending coro- nary artery was 100% blocked. That type of blockage can cause the heart to stop very quickly, which is why it is called the widow-maker. Dr. Rao used a catheter to open the artery so that blood could flow freely. Then he placed a stent in the artery to help keep it open. But now Rick faced another life-threatening prob- lem. His massive heart attack had led to cardiogenic shock—his heart couldn’t pump enough blood to his critical organs. So Dr. Rao temporarily placed a tiny pump, the Impella, in Rick’s heart. The device helped Rick’s heart pump efficiently while his heart recovered. “It’s an amazing device—it’s lifesaving,” Dr. Rao says. “My impression was that he would do well with it. And he did.” In fact, Rick went back to work a month after his heart attack “and had absolutely no trouble,” he says. It helped that he received rapid treatment and ac- cess to the best heart technology. “It was a good team effort,” Dr. Rao says. Heartfelt thanks Rick and Cindy are grateful to the medical teams at both hospitals. “They saved my life—no doubt,” Rick says, without hesitation. Jim Chiprean went on blood thin- ners in 2019 after he was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation, or AFib. As a result, he needed to be placed on blood thinners to prevent blood clots and strokes, which occur more frequently among people with AFib. But Jim started having severe nose bleeds, even once in the middle of the night. “He couldn’t take the blood thin- ners,” says Madelyn, Jim’s wife. Jim’s doctors at Butler Health System (BHS) recommended the Watchman procedure, which helps prevent strokes without the need for blood thinners. A safer alternative treatment AFib makes it more likely for blood clots to form in the heart. If a clot travels to the brain, it can cause a stroke. Blood thinners are very effective at preventing these clots and strokes, says Brian Carey, MD, an interventional cardiologist at BHS. Most people take the medicines without any problems. “But a significant percentage of pa- tients have tried them and have had trouble with them, which was the case with Mr. Chiprean,” Dr. Carey says. The most common side effect is bleeding, which can also occur in the GI tract. Stopping the blood thinners He survived the ‘widow-maker’ Clarion, BHS hospital teams saved Rick Staley’s life A safer way to prevent strokes The Watchman procedure allowed Jim Chiprean to avoid a serious side effect of his medicine BHS HEART TEAM Cindy and Rick Staley of Clarion, PA, and Michael Hoh, DO, Director, Medical Education, and Director of Emergency Medicine, Clarion Hospital. HEALTH LINK 4 |