THE POTENTIAL FOR MORE AT THE ICCHA / WISH CCU

CELEBRATING 12 YEARS

THE POTENTIAL FOR MORE AT THE ICCHA/WISH CCU

On Sunday October 11, 2020 at about 8:30 in the morning, I woke up after a solid 8 hours of sleep, got out of bed and started to walk toward the kitchen. Almost immediately I noticed a pressure in my chest that I hadn’t experienced before. I stopped and tried to work it out, twisting and turning, bending backwards and thinking that I had put something out of place in my back while working out in the gym the day before. Nothing I did affected what I was feeling. As I continued to move around, I noticed that the muscles up the sides of my neck were sore, and that the pain was travelling into my jaw line. I knew something was very wrong, and deep down I knew what it was, but I didn’t want to admit it immediately. How the heck could I be having a heart attack? I’m only 57 years old, I workout at least 5 days a week, I eat right, I don’t smoke, it didn’t make sense. After several minutes I told my wife, Roxanna, that something was wrong and fairly quickly we decided that I needed to get to the hospital.

We drove to Royal Inland Hospital where due to Covid restrictions, I was the only one allowed to enter. After a quick check in process I was escorted to a treatment bed where, in very short order I found myself being attended to by a very well coordinated team of people who, although moving with a sense of urgent purpose, were very calm, reassuring and professional. I remember asking what was going on and being told “oh, you’re having a heart attack”. Thanks to their quick action I was stabilized quickly and soon moved to the ICCHA/Wish Cardiac Care Unit. From the moment I got there I felt that I was in a good place. I have nothing but positive things to say about all of the staff in that unit. Later that day I was told that I was going to be sent to the Kelowna Hospital Cath Lab for an angiogram and likely at least one stent. However, I was told that I would have to wait until Tuesday as Monday was a stat holiday. I was also told that, although I needed to go, there is never a guarantee that I would to be able to go on Tuesday as it would depend on the availability of the Paramedic service to supply an ambulance and crew to transport me there, and if there were more pressing cases in Kelowna, that I might get bumped a day or two.

On Tuesday morning I was told that I was scheduled to go to Kelowna but they were unable to give an exact time as it would depend on when an ambulance in Kamloops was free to go. A few hours later the paramedics arrived to transport me to Kelowna. The paramedics told me that the plan was to take me to Vernon Hospital and that a crew from that area would take me the rest of the way to Kelowna as Kamloops was short on ambulance crews that day. I will say that I am a retired police officer and, after years they of working around paramedics, I know that they are a very caring and professional bunch, and they are very concerned about leaving their areas /cities without enough coverage. Unfortunately, when we arrived in Vernon, we learned that the paramedics that were supposed to be meeting us had come across an accident on the highway and were not available. So, as a result, my Kamloops paramedics were going to have to take me to Kelowna, leaving Kamloops short an ambulance.

We arrived in Kelowna and were met by an extremely enthusiastic group of professionals in the Cath Lab. I can say that the way they did their jobs took away any stress that I had been experiencing leading up to that point. Strangely enough, they made the experience actually enjoyable. I have no idea how that is possible but I think that speaks volumes for them. The procedure was quick, painless and reassuring to me because immediately the team identified that I had a single artery blocked, which they put a stent in to rectify, but additionally they were able to tell me right away that the rest of my heart was clear and that it was operating normally.

When it was time to be transported back to Kamloops, I was surprised to see the original paramedic crew return to get me. Once again, they were the only ambulance available, which made me think that the city was again running short of paramedics so that I could be transported back. The next day, after a consultation with Dr. Chu, I was released from hospital to recover at home.

When people ask me how I feel about my experience, I have a tendency to ramble on. I tell them to always take any symptoms they experience seriously, and to get to the hospital as soon as possible. That there is no better place to have a heart attack than in the hospital and, worst case scenario, you’re wrong and you’re fine. I tell them to buy 2 bottles of baby Aspirin, to put one in their car and one in the house and to tell everyone in their families where they are. I tell them that the care I got at Royal Inland Hospital and at the Kelowna Cath Lab was amazing and that we are lucky to have the services that we have. Finally I tell them that we need a Cath Lab at Royal Inland Hospital to increase the availability of procedures for both treatment and the diagnosis of cardiac conditions, to help reduce patient stress, as well as to alleviate the additional burden placed on the paramedic service, the hospital teams (such as the HART team) that often has to accompany patients.

Thanks to everyone who helped me out! - Mike Dewar