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After weeks of chest pain, Richard came to our Stavro Emergency Department at the urging of his wife. He was triaged and sent for testing.
“In the waiting room, I noticed there were screens to show your place in the queue, telling you how long things will take,” says Richard.
“Our team installed these wait time clocks to give patients a sense of how their case will be prioritized based on volumes,” says Dr. David Rosenstein, Information Technology Lead in our ED. “This helps manage expectations as we work to see that everyone gets the care and attention they need.”
“I was called up when the team saw my test results,” Richard explains.
Unfortunately, they revealed that he’d had a heart attack.
It was Friday, and our cardiac catheterization lab was closed for a long weekend. The team took care to ensure Richard’s condition was stable and he stayed for three nights in our Ken and Marilyn Thomson Patient Care Centre awaiting further assessment.
While Richard’s wife works at our hospital, most of the staff he encountered didn’t know this. “I’m not sure it would have made a difference either way,” he says. “Everyone was professional, without exception.”
Compassionate care you can count on
On Tuesday, Richard met with Dr. Mo Zia, Medical Director, Cardiac Program Expansion. Later that afternoon, following a full slate of heart procedures, members of the cardiac care team decided to work late on Richard’s case.
They began with an angiogram, a scan of blood flow through his heart’s arteries. It showed that one was completely blocked. Dr. Zia explained that this was the likely cause of Richard’s heart attack and that it could lead to other serious conditions. Together, they determined the best way forward was to install a stent that would open the blockage.
“The block was fairly solid, and this made the procedure all the more complex. But Dr. Zia was confident the team could manage it safely,” says Richard. “Prolonged delays can extend recovery. So they got right to work.”
“There were four or five people in the room and I was amazed at how well they communicated and worked together,” he recalls. “They all interrupted their personal lives to see to my case and that meant a lot to me personally and to my health.”
Following the procedure, Richard stayed another night at our hospital. Nursing staff checked in regularly to administer medication.
“I really didn’t know what to expect after the procedure, and I was a bit scared. But the staff I met brought a lot of clarity to the situation and they were very comforting,” he says. “The team takes a lot of pride in their work.”
The next day, Richard started to move around. He spoke to a nutritionist about what foods to eat, and which to avoid.
“She had a stent too, so she could directly relate to what I was going through,” says Richard. “Everything she said came from a place of knowing firsthand.”
Ensuring heart care for other patients
“The hospital took me from having a heart attack to getting stents put in to receiving specific instructions about how I could restart my life,” he says. “That made all the difference in my recovery. I returned to full health quickly and I count myself fortunate for that.”
To express his gratitude, Richard made a generous donation to help us expand our cardiac catheterization lab.
Michael Garron Hospital is one of five in Toronto to provide advanced cardiac care, like Richard received. And that’s a good thing, because there’s a high incidence of heart disease in our community.
An expanded cath lab will allow us to perform twice as many procedures. What’s more, it will mitigate unexpected downtime and alleviate the need to transfer heart patients to other hospitals, when every second counts. We’ll also be able the relocate pacemaker implantations from the operating room, freeing precious time as we tackle Ontario’s surgery backlog.
“If the expansion means more people will get to restart like I did, I’m all for it,” Richard says. “More capacity means shorter wait times for treatment, meaning people can get back to their lives that much sooner.”
Join Richard in ensuring advanced cardiac care in our community, please give at mghf.ca/donate
*Last name omitted for privacy.
