Patient Grateful After Life-Saving

It was a simple, one-page note delivered with treats, but Rick Eckerman’s short message said it all.

The UnityPoint Health Family Medicine clinic in Conrad saved his life.

It was September, and Rick was at home when he felt chest pain and began sweating profusely. He went to see his primary care provider at the Conrad clinic two blocks away.

Rick typically sees Dr. Steve Scurr. Today, a friend, Tim Cooper, PA-C, was in the office instead. Tim quickly assessed the situation, smiled at Rick and asked gently, “Well, was it in your plans to have a heart attack today?”

The clinic jumped into action. The team took his vitals, performed an EKG and administered nitroglycerin, which helps widen blood vessels to allow blood to get to the heart. The clinic also summoned a UnityPoint Health – Marshalltown ambulance along with BCERTS (local first responders) and the decision was made to get Rick to the cath lab at UnityPoint Health – Allen Hospital in Waterloo. “One of the local first-responders said, ‘You want a chopper?’” Cooper recalls. “I said, ‘Yeah, if it’s possible.’”

“When the ambulance crew got there, let’s just say they knew exactly what to do, every step of the way,” Rick remembers. “They were very precise in everything they were doing.”

“We took a look at the initial 12 lead (an electrocardiogram) and saw what appeared to be a STEMI (a heart attack involving a completely blocked coronary artery),” said Kyle Enderton, a paramedic with UnityPoint Health in Marshalltown. “We took a second 12 lead, and I found the patient to now be in AFib with the same posterior STEMI being shown. This was a serious sign.”

In a matter of minutes, a helicopter was on the ground near the fire station in Conrad and airlifted Rick to Waterloo.

“Once we were on the ground at Allen, people were all over us,” Rick remembers. “Dr. (Joud) Dib did the angiogram, and they scheduled me for surgery. I ended up having five bypasses.

“I’d forgotten Allen was a teaching hospital, so there wasn’t any lack of attention given to me on the cardiac floor,” he said. “People were coming in all the time to check on things. The staff was very knowledgeable, very informative, very kind, very precise. I haven’t spent a lot of time in hospitals, but I was thoroughly impressed with the level of care and professionalism I received.”

Three days after surgery, Rick was discharged and resumed his recovery with the cardiac rehab program at Grundy County Memorial Hospital, another UnityPoint Health facility.

“I almost look forward to going to rehab, Rick says. “No. 1, I know it’s helping. But No. 2, Brandy (Tripp), Krystle (Primus) and Erika (Leonard) are so nice, professional, attentive, knowledgeable and caring.”

These days, Rick is well on his way to a full recovery, and there are many people he wants to thank.

“My wife, Mary, and I had a charcuterie board put together and delivered it to the clinic with a note,” Rick said. “All the employees came out, and we kind of had a group hug and shared some tears.

“We’re a little more local here. Being smaller town, most everyone knows everyone else and what they do. You probably have more of a personal attachment here than what you might find in bigger cities. Plus, my mother was an RN for all her working career, so I have the utmost respect for the medical community and what they do.”

Rick’s follow-up visit and note was the real treat for the Conrad clinic.

“I’m so proud of this clinic, the quick response from BCERTS (Chris Harris and Mike Purvis) and the ambulance team,” said Clinic Administrator Crystal Anderson. “Things get super stressful, but this is why we do what we do – and what helps keep us going.”

“There are a lot of moving parts in health care,” Cooper summed up, “but I do believe the system saved his life, or at least preserved his heart function.”

Heart Disease Facts

46%

116.4 million (46%) of U.S. adults are estimated to have hypertension.

Someone in the U.S. has a heart attack every 40 seconds.

About 697,000 people die of heart disease in the U.S. every year, that's 1 in every 5 deaths.

45%

#1

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women.

By 2035, more than 45% are projected to have some form of cardiovascular disease.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. About Multiple Cause of Death, 1999–2020. CDC WONDER Online Database website. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 2022. Accessed February 21, 2022.