Patient Stories
Dr. Fahd Syed and an “Exceptional” Team of Caregivers Saved My Life
When Jean Rivich woke up at Northwest Health – Porter on May 19, she learned she had experienced a near fatal heart attack. No one was more surprised than her.
“I was shocked,” said Jean. “I’ve always been so healthy. I watched what I ate and worked out almost every day. My only health complaint was my persistent heartburn that seemed to keep getting worse.”
Jean recalls waking up around 2 a.m. on May 14 feeling ill. “I took Alka-Seltzer to try to get more comfortable. It didn’t help, so I took Pepto-Bismol later in the morning in hopes that it would relieve my stomach pain.”
Mike, Jean’s husband, recalls, “Jean began visibly shaking while sitting on the couch that morning and asked for a bucket, thinking she may get sick. I left the room momentarily to feed the cat, when I heard Jean cry out. Next I heard a loud thud. When I ran back, I found her unconscious on the floor, and that’s when everything started.”
Mike immediately called 911 and started CPR. The paramedics arrived within minutes and transported Jean by ambulance to Northwest Health – Porter, an accredited Chest Pain Center.
When Mike got to the emergency department a doctor explained that Jean’s heart had stopped and although they were repeatedly shocking it with a defibrillator, she wasn’t sustaining a heartbeat.
“It was all so scary,” recalls Mike.
Jean was rushed to the cath lab, a specialized area used to perform minimally invasive procedures to diagnose and treat cardiovascular disease. In the cath lab, interventional cardiologist Dr. Fahd Syed and the heart care team discovered that Jean had 100% blockage of the left anterior descending artery, the largest artery in the heart – informally referred to as the widowmaker.
Due to the severity of her heart attack, Dr. Syed placed two small heart pumps – one in each side of Jean’s heart – to assist her heart’s pumping function, and then placed stents to open up the blockage and return blood flow to the heart.
Jean was moved to the ICU where she was put on a ventilator to help support her breathing. The team then induced a medical coma and therapeutic hypothermia, or medically induced cooling of the body’s temperature, to help reduce damage to her brain, heart and organs, and improve Jean’s chances of recovery.
Five days after the heart attack, Jean was weaned off the hypothermia protocol and ventilator. As Jean’s heart became stronger, the heart pumps were removed. She was released from the ICU after a week with orders to rest at home.
“I learned from Dr. Syed that even though I was doing everything right, genetics were to blame for my near fatal heart attack. He said my healthy lifestyle was a huge factor in my recovery and survival,” said Jean. “That and of course the exceptional care I received from the paramedics, ER team, Dr. Syed and the heart team, and the caregivers in ICU. We are so grateful to everyone, especially Dr. Syed, for the amazing level of care I received. I’m alive today because of them.”
A Lesson to Share
“My friends and relatives still can’t believe this happened to me – but it did; and I want everyone to know my experience was nothing like a ‘typical’ heart attack. All along I thought I had heartburn.”
“The heart team at Northwest Health replaced my Aunt Maria’s heart valve. She went from experiencing shortness of breath, nearly fainting and fatigued to feeling fantastic. Thank you Northwest Health.”
– Dennis Briciu, nephew of Maria Teletin.
A native of Romania, Maria Teletin was having a delightful vacation visiting her nephew and family in Knox, Indiana. At 64, she was active, full of life and enjoyed playing with her nephew’s children and working in their garden. That was until, almost overnight, she started to feel overly fatigued and short of breath.
“We knew something was very wrong when my aunt started having difficulty breathing,” said Dennis Briciu, Maria’s nephew. That’s when Dennis knew his aunt needed medical attention, and urged a very frightened Maria to go to the emergency department at Northwest Health – Starke.
“My aunt does not speak English, so my mom (her sister) and my wife stayed with her to interpret and best explain her care,” said Dennis.
There Maria was stabilized then transferred to Northwest Health – La Porte for more advanced cardiac testing and care. At La Porte, Maria was seen by interventional cardiologist Dr. Anshuman Das who diagnosed her with heart failure and severe aortic stenosis, a condition that had caused her heart valve to narrow and reduce normal blood flow.
Dr. Das shared his findings with the Northwest Health team of heart specialists and it was determined that the best treatment option for Maria would be transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), a minimally invasive heart valve replacement procedure to restore function and improve blood flow.
TAVR is an alternative to conventional open-heart aortic valve surgery. Because it’s minimally invasive, patients who undergo TAVR can expect a smaller incision, shorter hospital stay, and faster recovery over open-heart surgery.
Maria was transferred to Northwest Health – Porter in nearby Valparaiso where Dr. Das and his team performed the procedure.
Dennis is happy to say that his aunt felt so much better almost immediately after her valve replacement and is so grateful to Dr. Das and the entire cardiac team for their outstanding, compassionate care.
“My aunt can’t stop singing the praises of Northwest Health,” shared Dennis. “She tells everyone ‘they were a huge blessing from God’ and is so happy that she feels well again and could return home to Romania as planned.”
"I thought I had the heart of an elite athlete. Why do I need a pacemaker?"
Allison E., Valparaiso
Alison E. had always been active. She played volleyball year-round throughout school. She had even been told that she had a heart like renowned swimmer Michael Phelps, because her resting heart rate was so low. So when she began experiencing chest pain in early November, she figured it was a pulled muscle. After all, she’s only 19.
But, as the day progressed and the pain increased, Alison decided to get it checked out. “I thought I was just being cautious,” she says. But soon after arriving at Porter’s ER and having an EKG, Alison learned she had third degree heart blockage.
Alison discovered that her heart wasn’t working properly. “They explained to me that the top half of my heart was talking, but the bottom half wasn’t listening. The parts weren’t working together,” she relates. Electrophysiologist Mark Dixon, D.O., explained that Alison needed a pacemaker. “I was reluctant. I thought pacemakers were for old people,” she admits.
With her mother by her side, Alison went to Northwestern Medical Center in Chicago for additional input. “We hoped that there was medication or new treatment that would be less invasive than a pacemaker. But at Northwestern they told us exactly the same thing as Dr. Dixon,” she says. “Because my heart rate was so low, I could have gone into cardiac arrest at any time.” She also learned that her recurring nightmares were a classic sign that her heart was pausing during sleep. “I’d dream that I was driving and I’d wake myself up as I veered off the road. I’d have this dream 15 or 16 times a night. When Dr. Dixon told me what that sort of dream means, I was like ‘Holy cow! My nightmares may have saved my life.’”
Alison had the pacemaker implanted days later. “Dr. Dixon made the tiniest incision. It’s only eight stitches. People can’t even see it. The only real restriction is that I need to be careful with security screening devices at the airport.”
“This experience has made me realize that we’re not all indestructible. I had never had a broken bone, never needed surgery. And I thought I had a great heart,” Alison shares. “I want people to know that they need to pay attention to their bodies and to be tested for heart problems. I might have been a statistic, but instead I’m spreading the word.”
"You read about people dying from undetected defects. That could have been me."
Ashley D., LaPorte
Ashley D. was a busy lady. She had a full-time job, and two active boys, Henry, 4 years old; and Ryder, 1. “Sure, I was tired, but I thought it was normal with my schedule. I didn’t see it as a red flag,” says Ashley, a LaPorte resident.
Still, when her employer offered heart screenings, she took advantage. “My screening EKG showed an abnormality and they recommended that I follow up with a doctor. I wasn’t too concerned.” Fortunately, Ashley took this result seriously.
Within days, she saw a cardiologist who referred her to Jay Shah, M.D., for a trans esophageal echocardiogram (TEE). “During the echocardiogram, the technician left the room and came right back with Dr. Shah. I began to think ‘Maybe there’s something to this.’” says Ashley. Dr. Shah told her that her heart had a significant congenital defect.
In fact, within three days of her initial screening, Ashley learned she had a hole in her heart, which had been there since birth. “Dr. Shah said that if he hadn’t done the tests himself, he wouldn’t believe he was looking at the heart of a healthy 30-year-old with two children. Doctors were surprised I hadn’t had a stroke,” shares Ashley. This sort of undetected heart defect is often discovered after an athlete suddenly dies on the field or when someone simply doesn’t wake up.
After consulting with specialists, Ashley learned that her only option was open-heart surgery. While the thought of such invasive surgery was terrifying, Ashley and husband Nathan were confident in Cardiothoracic Surgeon Walid Khabbaz, M.D., “The surgery went really well. The hole was nearly the size of a silver dollar, but I was lucky that there was no additional damage,” says Ashley who spent four days in the hospital. “Once I recover, I shouldn’t have any restrictions. I can already tell that I have more energy than I did before. I’m definitely healthier now than I was before surgery and each day gets better.”
“Every day I thank God for a new day. Looking back, I think about how lucky I am. I’ve played sports my whole life. You read about people dying from undetected defects. That could have been me,” Ashley reflects. “Everyone should be screened. Heart defects do not discriminate by race or gender or family history. Everyone is at risk.”
* Door-to-balloon time refers to he amount of time between a heart attack patient’s arrival at the hospital to the time the patient has blood supply restored to the affected areas of the heart. Because “time is muscle”, the delays in treating a heart attack increase the amount of cardiac muscle or long-term damage. The American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines recommend a door-to-balloon interval of no more than 90 minutes. Northwest Health - Porter's Center for Cardiovascular Medicine exceeds this expectation 96% of the time as reported by The Joint Commission’s Core Measures.