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You’ve been here before—two other times to be exact. Waking up in the middle of the night, chest pain, and the dreadful feeling that there might be something seriously wrong.
For Pete Stein, this was his reality on Sunday, June 24.
Stein, a 67-year-old Houston resident, awoke around 1:40 am and thought he was having esophageal spasms, sometimes associated with GERD. Esophageal spasms can produce a feeling of pain in the chest, intense enough to make someone think they are having a heart attack.
After 20 minutes of trying to relieve the pain from what he thought was something minor, Stein decided to wake his wife, LeaAnn, to take him to the hospital.
Stein and LeaAnn arrived at Texas County Memorial Hospital at 2:19 am. Stein was not new to the hospital’s emergency room, and had in fact been in two other times prior to that visit with signs of a heart attack. Luckily, they were false alarms.
This time, however, was not a false alarm. Stein arrived at TCMH, and emergency room staff quickly initiated chest pain protocols. Chest pain protocols include getting the patient in and hooked up to an electrocardiogram (EKG), which will confirm or deny the presence of a heart attack, within 10 minutes.
For Stein, this time was even shorter—4 minutes.
Dr. Jamal Zereik, Cody Rogers, registered nurse (RN), and Bailey Bryan, RN confirmed the heart attack and moved to the ST-myocardial infarction (STEMI) protocols. A STEMI is more commonly known as a heart attack.
Following STEMI protocols, the emergency room staff administered medication to allow blood flow around the obstruction. According to state designated STEMI protocols, from the time the patient walks through the door, they should be given the life-saving medication within 30 minutes or less.
Luckily for Stein, the emergency room staff worked quickly and administered the medication within 11 minutes of his arrival to the hospital.
“Very soon after receiving the medication I began to feel relief,” Stein said, mentioning that by the time they got him from his room to the hallway to load him on the helicopter, the pain was pretty well gone. “I felt they had stabilized me,” Stein said, as he described his sense of relief.
Once the helicopter arrived, air ambulance staff and TCMH emergency room staff performed a hot load. A hot load is when the patient is loaded on the helicopter when the rotors are still running.
While the patient is loaded into the helicopter, emergency room staff have to communicate everything they have done, as well as patient stats, all while trying to switch the patient from the hospital equipment to the helicopter equipment.
According to Lauren Toman, TCMH STEMI coordinator, Zereik and the rest of the emergency department staff had Stein loaded into the helicopter within 3 minutes.
“Getting a patient ready for the helicopter ride is usually about a 20-minute process,” Toman said. She added, “Cody and Bailey really went above and beyond to make sure the patient got to the helicopter quickly.”
Stein explained that everything happened so fast, as he just laid there and watched everything take place around him.
“Dr. Zereik was like an orchestra conductor, calmly pointing people in the right direction and telling them what needed to be done to save my heart muscle,” Stein said. He added, “They were running like a well-oiled machine.”
LeaAnn agreed with her husband’s comments as she explained that the hard work TCMH staff put into practicing STEMI protocols proved incredibly helpful in this situation.
The helicopter carried Stein to a level one STEMI center in Springfield that has the ability to offer interventional care for patients.
“Cox couldn’t say enough good things about the rapid response and perfect treatment Pete received at TCMH,” LeaAnn said. She added, “The staff was phenomenal.”
Because of the medication Stein received, he was stable when he arrived in Springfield, allowing them to perform a more controlled procedure on his heart the following day.
Within a few days of having a major heart attack, Stein went home. He now participates in cardiac rehab at TCMH to help regain strength in his heart.
“Everything happened so fast,” Stein said. LeaAnn added, “We knew exactly what was happening the entire time thanks to the emergency room staff.”
Stein and LeaAnn have two sons: one is in the Air Force, and the other works for Children and Families of Arizona.
Stein and LeaAnn have been married for 44 years and now thanks to the amazing emergency department staff at TCMH, they are looking forward to many more years together.