Back from the dead

“On Sept. 4 I called 911 after deciding that it was best to die in the hospital than at home, I ended up in your emergency room.”

This sobering sentence is how 79-year old Ray Yount, of Kellogg, started his thank you letter to Shoshone Medical Center (SMC) for literally bringing him back to life on Sept. 4, 2016 after suffering a heart attack. After calling 911, EMS personnel arrived and gave him aspirin during the ride to help deactivate platelets which contribute to clotting (this is commonly referred to as “thinning” the blood).

Dr. David Lawhorn with SMC’s Emergency Department explains that Yount arrived at the hospital “with a complaint of chest pain.”

This is when Yount’s recollection of that day’s events gets fuzzy.

“I remember being wheeled into the emergency room and a few minutes of conversation,” Yount said, “then I draw a blank.”

Filling in the blanks, Dr. Lawhorn says that “within moments of getting him onto the stretcher in the ED his heart stopped beating normally and went into a condition we call Ventricular Fibrillation Cardiac Arrest.”

At this point, death was imminent unless the ER team could get Yount’s heart started again.

To do this, “chest compressions were begun (CPR) to try to keep blood circulating to the lungs and brain and other organs,” Lawhorn explained. “While this was going on he was given a medication called Amiodarone through his veins to help stop the fibrillation (a condition where the muscle cells in the heart are just quivering and not contracting) and allow the heart muscle cells to get back to a normal beat. We then shocked the heart with 200 Joules of electricity (defibrillation).”

Within 30 to 45 second after the defibrillation and continued CPR, Yount’s heart regained normal rhythm.

Three to four minutes later, his heart had restarted and he was “very alert and talking with us.”

Yount’s memory kicked back on, recalling that the next thing he remembered after being wheeled into the emergency room was the doctor leaning over him and telling him that he was “definitely going to Coeur d’Alene.”

“That was when I knew I had survived a heart attack.”

Yount said that hearing he was going to Coeur d’Alene “was a surprise because I was pretty sure I would not...leave the Medical Center alive.”

During the procedure to bring him back, the ER team gave Yount a variety of medications to thin blood, boost oxygen levels (to make sure his cells work and reduce injury to the heart), reduce blood pressure (to increase blood flow), reduce the irritability of muscle cells (to avoid having another attack), and relieve pain/ discomfort.

Yount was then taken to get X-rays done before being sent to Kootenai Health in Coeur d’Alene.

“I tried to kid with the (X-ray) technician but he was having none of it,” Yount joked. “Totally serious and concentrating, he did his job...”

Yount was transported to Kootenai Health by the county’s EMS personnel to finish up the process of stabilizing the situation.

There he received two stents to restore blood flow in his heart.

The success of Mr. Yount’s story reflects well on the staff of SMC’s ED team, showing that a critical patient can be brought to the medical center and be stabilized for further treatment.

Dr. Lawhorn explains, “we have two designated trauma/resuscitation rooms in the ED (Emergency Department) at SMC so that we can handle more than one resuscitation at a time if needed. All specialized equipment for scenarios that require immediate action for resuscitation are kept available right by the bedside. We utilize our training and this equipment for many different types of critical situations that require immediate life saving interventions including heart attacks. Critical resuscitation skills are simply part of our core training and competency that the emergency medicine doctors and nurses learn and acquire through years of training, testing and experience.”

According to SMC’s records, the medical center saw 180 people last year for “chest pain complaints.”

Although Dr. Lawhorn says that most of these were not heart attacks, SMC certainly sees its fair share of heart related incidents and is ready to help.

Just ask Mr. Yount.

“So Shoshone Medical Center, although it was not involved in all phases of treatment, provided the initial critical care to ensure my survival.”