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WCH honors cardiac arrest survivors

The Daily Record - 10/24/2019

WOOSTER – A Wooster woman who said she is “lucky to be alive” was an important part of a celebration of life at Wooster Community Hospital’s first Cardiac Arrest Survivor Dinner, which honored seven local patients whose lives were saved in 2019 and the Wooster health-care professionals who provided their care.

Sylvia LeClear, a diabetic patient for 60 years, had a severe insulin reaction just after Father’s Day in June. Her husband and son called the squad not once, but twice. She seemed to be recovering after the first call; but when her family observed she was still in trouble, they called the squad a second time. LeClear was transported to Wooster Community Hospital, where she spent the next four days in intensive care.

She was ultimately transferred to Cleveland Clinic by her cardiologist, Dr. Paul Moodispaw., and was not released until July 5.

While she has very little recollection about either hospital stay, she is clear on one significant point.

“It was so remarkable what the squad did,” she said, noting, “I arrested about three times while they were here (at my house for the second time).”

They were the first line of defense in stabilizing her so that she could be transported to the hospital; after which hospital personnel were responsible for improving her condition until she was able to be sent to Cleveland.

The message of the dinner to health-care providers about saving lives in these cases which occurred “in the field,” meaning outside of the hospital, said Chief Nursing Officer Shelly Huff, is, “This is the impact you’ve had on people in our community.”

“Their hearts were not beating; they were not breathing,” said Erica Stahl, a clinical nursing specialist in cardiovascular and emergency room care.

Each case resulted in the patient “surviving and doing well,” Huff said. “Through a collaboration with EMS and all of the departments here, we were able to save them. It’s really good for our employees to see those patients.”

“It’s a reminder of why we do what we do.” Stahl said, adding, often, “a very large group of people is involved (in a patient’s care).”

“It lights a fire,” said Ryan Sullivan, EMS coordinator, pointing out that in seeing their successes, health-care providers say, “I want to do that again.”

Three of the survivors were able to attend the dinner, LeClear said; and as they told their stories at the podium, the health-care professionals who provided their care stood beside them.

“I feel so remarkably lucky to be alive,” she said, “which all has to do with these people.” Among the three survivors who spoke at the dinner, LeClear said, “Each one of us has different people who saved our lives.”

The hospital has been experiencing incremental success since it initiated a cardiology program in 2001, although some naysayers at the time said the community wasn’t big enough to support one, according to Huff.

“Eighteen years later, we have an extremely robust, outstanding cardiology program that starts with EMS,” Huff said, and includes the emergency department, cardiology, cath lab, intensive care unit, progressive care unit and “many others working in collaboration to achieve superior outcomes.”

Lives saved are a testament to the hospital’s research into best practice in cardiology, according to Stahl. “We brought it here; we bring that level of care to our community.”

Seven lives being saved so far this year, said Sullivan, “is not a fluke. We’re giving the patients a chance to celebrate that. Now we’d like to do it every year with more and more people.”

Wooster Hospital’s statistics demonstrate an impressive level of care. Nationwide, the survival rate of patients who suffer sudden cardiac arrest outside the hospital is 8-12 percent. At Wooster Community Hospital so far this year, it is 19 percent.

“(It) ranks in the 90th percentile across the nation for its (door to balloon) times,” said Huff, referring to the time between the incident and opening up an artery. Ranked in this data are “all hospitals that have interventional cardiology.”

The national door to balloon time is 90 minutes, and Wooster Hospital’s time is between 50-55 minutes, with “the quickest door to balloon time” documented at 15 minutes.

Wooster Community Hospital, according to Huff, averages about 450 heart catheterizations a year and began performing percutaneous coronary interventions in December of 2016.

“Since then,” she said, “we have performed nearly 800 PCIs,” 130 of which were cases of an acute heart attack.

“The hospital has come a long way since 2001,” Sullivan said.

Another step in increasing survival rates from cardiac arrest is involving the community by teaching people how to perform CPR, Stahl said. “If CPR is started immediately when someone has a cardiac arrest, their chance of survival doubles or triples.”

“It starts with them,” Stahl said, encouraging signing up for CPR classes with the local fire department or the hospital.

Reporter Linda Hall can be reached at lhall@the-daily-record.com or 330-264-1125, Ext. 2230. She is @lindahallTDR on Twitter.

CREDIT: LINDA HALL

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