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Email Print SharePublished on May 15, 2013

Don't Ignore the Signs of a Heart Attack: A TestimonialIn Brief

Larry Swafford, from Wilmington, Del., came to the Crozer-Chester Medical Center Emergency Department because he had beensuffering from chest pain for much of the day.

Crozer staff quickly determined that Swafford was suffering from a heart attack and immediately provided him with life-saving care.

The episode demonstrated the team approach to emergency and cardiology care found at Crozer-Chester Medical Center and otherCKHS hospitals.

On Saturday, February 9, Larry Swafford celebrated his 39th birthday at his home in Wilmington with his family. It is a birthday that he,and they, will never forget.

He will remember that if weren’t for a series of lucky circumstances, he would not be there. Two days earlier, Swafford suffered a heartattack.

The day didn’t start out particularly special for Swafford. A banker by profession, he had taken the week off from work and was justdoing odds and ends. “I walked around all day with chest pain,” he says. “I thought it was gas. I play sports and know that when you havean injury, you suck it up. So I was sucking it up.”

Swafford and his girlfriend, Holly Paulson, were shopping in Media when the pain became unbearable. He told her to take him to thehospital. “At that point, my elbows were hurting and I was really feeling bad. Holly drove me to Crozer-Chester Medical Center. Both herchildren were born at Crozer and she didn’t hesitate to come here first. I walked in to the Emergency Department while Holly was parkingthe car,” Swafford says.

John Price is a patient access representative in the Emergency Department at Crozer- Chester Medical Center. He is the person whohandles the initial check-in when a patient comes to the Emergency Department.

When Swafford arrived and said he had severe chest pain, and “looked pale with a wide-eyed look,” Price didn’t treat this check-in asroutine.

“I did what we call a mini-reg,” he says. “I got his social security number, his birth date and his name so I could share that with the Triagenurse. Then I told him to sit down and I went to the Triage area, where I told Nurse Stephanie Morelli that there “was a patient who wasin a lot of distress.”

Morelli immediately brought Swafford into Triage and hooked him up to an EKG machine. “As it was printing out the results,” she says,“I could see the ST elevation. That indicates a possible heart attack or MI [myocardial infarction].”

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Morelli immediately got Swafford into a wheelchair, put an oxygen mask on him and started wheeling him to the back to be treated. “As Iwas pushing, I passed the doctors and said this guy has chest pain and isn’t looking too good. Dr. (Donald) Jenkins took the EKG printoutfrom my hands, called out to the clerk to alert the cath lab and began working on Mr. Swafford,” she says.

“Dr. Jenkins told me I was having a heart attack. They put me on a gurney and in no time I had a stent in one of my arteries,” Swaffordsays. “That’s how I remember it.”

Ancil Jones, M.D.

Ancil Jones, M.D., interventional cardiologist and chief of the Department of Cardiology at Crozer, credits the Emergency Departmentteam for good work. “The team did what it is trained to do,” he says. “Everything went well and smoothly. The patient had one artery thatwas completely (100 percent) blocked. We worked very quickly, with no wasted time or wasted effort to restore blood flow to theaffected heart muscle. We also try to make sure that the patient understands what is going on, and we try to allay his or her concerns.”

Swafford says, “I never thought I would be a candidate for a heart attack. I had seen my family doctor the day before and my bloodpressure was 140/76, which wasn’t too bad. I have no history or family history, I play sports. I am shocked.”

Morelli credits Price for really being on the ball. “We are lucky to have the team we work with,” she says. “I was so impressed; Johnknew what he was looking at.”

Bruce Nisbet, M.D.

Bruce Nisbet, M.D., chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Crozer, adds that while he was delighted to hear howsmoothly and swiftly Swafford was evaluated and treated, he wasn’t actually surprised due to the high degree of teamwork andcommitment to patient care that exists in the department.

Larry Swafford proves that a heart attack can happen to almost anyone. “The only thing I would like to add,” he says, “is how my familywas treated—like family! They were cared for with the same attention as was given to me. They were communicated with on everythingthat was going on.”

For more information about Crozer-Keystone Health System cardiology care, visit http://ckheart.crozerkeystone.org. For moreinformation about Crozer-Keystone emergency care, visit http://ckheart.crozerkeystone.org.

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