Easily on schedule, Colorado trucker David Daze pulled into the Mid America Steel parking lot early Monday morning to make his delivery. No bone-chilling cold, no flooding Red River – just a pleasant August day in downtown Fargo.
A trucker for 33 years, he knew the routine well: park the rig, remove the tarps, unstrap the load of steel.
"I was well-rested and felt good. In fact I'd gotten to town a couple days early from Kansas City, Mo.," says the 48-year-old. "But in one fell swoop it changed."
Shortly after removing the tarps, he threw up breakfast. Hot and sweaty, he sat down to recover.
Still queasy, David went back to work, determined to finish the job of unstrapping the steel. That's when the backs of his arms began to ache.
Joel Settelmeyer, an employee at Mid America, knew something was wrong. He told David to go sit in the air-conditioned office.
"I sat in there a few minutes but just couldn't cool off. Then it felt like someone was stepping on my chest," says David. "That's when I knew I must be having a heart attack."
Joel acted fast. He knew this was an emergency and MeritCare was just a couple minutes away.
"The last thing I remember is two guys helping me into Joel's pickup. Then everything turned white," says David. "My next clear memory is waking up in a hospital room."
Saving time save lives
David's arrival at
MeritCare Emergency Center activated Door to Balloon – an American Heart Association initiative adopted by
MeritCare Heart Center. Door to Balloon aims for rapid treatment of heart attacks caused by blocked arteries. Faster care stops
heart attacks, saves lives and significantly reduces permanent heart damage.
David's seamless chain-of-care included:
- An immediate electrocardiogram (EKG) at MeritCare Emergency Center. The EKG showed a massive heart attack in progress. (For patients transported by F-M Ambulance, EKGs can now be performed pre-hospital, saving valuable time.)
- One call to MeritCare Heart Center's cardiac catheterization lab. This call mobilized the cardiac cath team for David's emergency angioplasty – a proven treatment that involves opening an artery and inserting a drug-eluding stent, but it must happen quickly. The recommended goal is 90 minutes or less from the time the patient enters the hospital; MeritCare now averages 50 minutes. (Heart attack patients transported by F-M Ambulance go directly to the cardiac cath lab, bypassing the Emergency Center – another timesaver.)
- An open artery in 29 minutes. Under the care of interventional cardiologist Dr. Thomas Haldis and the cardiac cath team, David underwent successful angioplasty. But it wasn't routine. David's heart stopped three times – an unusual situation that points to the need for a highly experienced team trained in advanced life support. MeritCare's team performs 250 procedures a month, including 40 to 50 emergency angioplasties.
Lucky to be alive
David's recovery continued in the hospital's heart unit. One of his first visitors was his MeritCare cardiologist
Dr. Jon Dickson. "That's when I learned how lucky I was," says David. "He said if I'd gotten to the hospital five minutes later, I wouldn't have made it."
Today David's back home in Denver. As part of his follow-up care, he participates in
cardiac rehabilitation at a local hospital. He looks forward to returning to work, but knows healing takes time. He'll also need to pass another Department of Transportation physical before he's allowed back on the road.
And yes, he's thought about what would've happened if the heart attack had struck while he was driving. "I'm pretty sure I could've gotten the truck stopped and pulled over, but I don't think I could've gotten to a heart hospital in time," says David. "All I can say is thank you to Joel and thank you to MeritCare. Five minutes later and I would've been long gone."