Heart Attack Leads to Emergency Angioplasty at Illini Campus
(Posted 9/29/06)

More than a little luck was on Tom Timmerman's side the afternoon he felt to the floor from a heart attack.  

The rainy July 21 day had brought him home early from work.  His son saw him collapse.  His wife, Marsha, immediately called 911.  Family friend Joe Swan of the Colona Fire Department was the first on the scene.  Illini ambulance crews used a 12-lead EKG in the field to determine a heart attack was in progress.  They then notified the Emergency Department at Genesis Medical Center's Illini Campus, where a heart attack alert was initiated so that hospital staff could begin responding before Timmerman arrived. 

At the hospital, his life was saved by early intervention in the hospital's cardiac catheterization lab. 

Quick Response
The clock began ticking the minute Timmerman arrived at the hospital.  It was only 50 minutes from the time he entered the Emergency Department doors to the time cardiologist Kumar Bobba, M.D., of Cardiovascular Medicine, P.C., had restored blood flow to his heart with emergency angioplasty.  That's faster than the national standard of care of 90 minutes set by the American College of Cardiology, said Sue Smith, R.N., Nurse Manager of the Illlini Campus cardiac catheterization lab. 

"I'm so lucky to be alive," said Timmerman, 62, of Colona, Ill, who was on a ventilator for several days in the Intensive Care Unit before transferring to the hospital's Medical Telemetry Unit.  "They told me I lost my heat rate several times and was defibrillated 13 times.  I remember going down, and that's all I remember until I woke up in the hospital six days later. 

"Before I went home from the hospital, they ran a final EKG and the doctor walked in with a smile on his face and said, 'You just cheated a good heart attack.'"

although he doesn't remember it, Marsha Timmerman says her husband kept calling out "Take me to a heart hospital" while in the painful throes of his heart attack.  Before his treatment, neither knew that the Illini Campus had a catheterization lab.  Nor did they realize that in 2005, nearly 70 people like tom Timmerman arrived at the Illini Campus in the midst of a life-threatening heart attack and benefited from early emergency intervention.

"He received really excellent care, and the nurses at Illini were great," Mrs. Timmerman said. 

With the state of Illinois' permission, the Illini Campus became the first hospital in the area to perform emergency interventional catheterizations without an open-heart surgical program.  Within the Genesis system of care, open-heart surgery is performed at the East Rusholme Street campus. 

"The Illini Campus delivers excellent cardiac care in an emergency, and this has had a very positive effect on the surrounding community," said Sanjeev Puri, M.D., of Cardiovascular Medicine, P.C.  "Time is muscle.  The sooner you can get to the hospital and the faster you can get that artery opened, the better.  Study after study has shown this results in better patient outcomes - no only 30 day later but at six months, one year and even a decade later.  The result is that more people are alive 10 years later because the artery was opened faster." 

Angioplasty involves opening a tiny balloon in a clogged artery to improve blood flow.  A stent, or a small metal coil, keeps the artery propped open. 

A New Level of Care
In the past year, the same skilled cardiologists who do emergency angioplasty at Illini are now performing elective angioplasty and stent placement on patients with blocked arteries in the heart.  Before this procedure was only offered in emergency cases, Smith said. 

That made it easier for Timmerman days after his initial emergency, when it came time to receive several more stents.  He and his family were happy he could have the elective angioplasty and stent placement done at Illini and didn't have to transfer to another hospital. 

"We are pleased to offer this convenience to patients needing low-to-moderate risk angioplasty," Smith said.  "We've worked very diligently with the cardiologists and the Genesis Heart Institute and moved forward with stringent guidelines on what cases we will perform." 

Today, Timmerman is home from the hospital and attending cardiac rehabilitation.  The Illini Campus offers on-site Phase II cardiac rehabilitation and the People Utilizing Life-Saving Exercise, or PULSE, program at the Two River YMCA in Moline. 

Marsha Timmerman is grateful her husband, who hadn't noticed any warning signs of heart disease, survived.  "He lucked out because we got him to the hospital fast, and the hospital responded so quickly and skillfully." 

-- Story by Linda Barlow, Genesis