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All in good time: Quick emergency care for a local resident's heart
"The next thing I knew, Dr. Mejia was telling me that I was having a heart attack," she said. "Then, the surgery was over and I woke up in critical care. Everyone was so shocked that I was there already—in just thirty-four minutes!"
Sally Murrin, who had a heart attack last June, doesn’t know exactly when her 34 minutes started ticking. But she has a vivid idea of how they ended.
“You know in a rodeo how they throw their arms up when a skill is finished?” said the 72-year-old. “Well, I figure Dr. Mejia got in my three stents and threw his arms up in the air so they would stop counting.”
Murrin’s emergency angioplasty surgery may have been less theatrical, but it was no less impressive. Her door-to-balloon time—34 minutes—was less than half of the national standard.
“Door-to-balloon time is a way to assess how efficiently a hospital treats heart attacks,” explained Marco Mejia, M.D., the interventional cardiologist who performed Murrin’s angioplasty. “The shorter the period of time, the less damage to the heart and the better the survival rate and long-term prognosis.”
Murrin’s time was so short, in part, because of a program that has been in place at Anne Arundel Medical Center (AAMC) for eight years. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, a cardiac catheterization team is on call to care for patients who are having a heart attack.
“The cath team rearranges their lives so these procedures can be done quickly,” Dr. Mejia said. “The people here are incredibly dedicated.”
Murrin’s quick care was also possible because of the dedication of the Annapolis City Emergency Medical Services (EMS) .
For over a year, the Annapolis City EMS has been using mobile technology to take electrical pictures of the heart. Those pictures can then be sent directly to AAMC, activating the heart attack team if necessary.
“It puts all of us on the same page,” said Nick Bussink, NREMPT, who was the lead provider on Murrin’s call. “Everyone can essentially see what’s happening in the back of our ambulance before we even get to the emergency room.”
In Murrin’s case, that meant the EMS team could start prepping her for angioplasty right away. They placed her on oxygen, established an IV and drew blood. Then, when they got to the hospital, Murrin was able to skip the ER and go directly into surgery.
“The next thing I knew, Dr. Mejia was telling me that I was having a heart attack,” she said. “Then, the surgery was over and I woke up in critical care. Everyone was so shocked that I was there already—in just thirty-four minutes!”
Dr. Mejia acknowledged that Murrin’s door-to-balloon time was impressive, but he pointed out that speed is not the only mark of excellent care.
“Yes, this program should be recognized for how quickly we’re able to actually treat patients,” he said. “But also for the fact that we’ve done a good job of accurately diagnosing patients who have heart attacks—and that’s not always easy.”
Murrin, in any case, is filled with gratitude.
“I think we’re exceedingly lucky to have AAMC here in Annapolis,” she said. “I know I am.”
