On Friday, May 6th, at 8.00 A.M. my wife, Marilyn, left home to go to an appointment. I'm a diabetic and had just taken my regular insulin shot. Shortly after she left , I began to feel dizzy and found it very difficult to move around. I broke out in a cold sweat and my heart began thumping fast and irregularly. I knew something was wrong, but at the time wasn't familiar with a sugar low and how it behaved. Being alone, I decided to call 911.
I explained to the operator what was happening and she dispatched a team of Medics immediately. They arrived within 3 to 5 minutes and went into action in various ways at the same time, including attaching an electrocardiograph system to me. At the same time a medic brought me a peanut butter sandwich to eat. I understand now that it's a common thing to do for a sugar-low condition. After realizing my heart wasn't behaving right either, they prepared me for transport and off to the hospital we went. To me, their operation was performed to perfection.
Once delivered to the emergency room, they continued their work in corolation with the hospital staff to get me stabilized. Within a half hour I was back to what I thought was normal again, except I was to find out it wasn't normal at all. My condition was something that had been slowly happening over a period of years.
The first couple of days involved getting my diabetes treatment adjusted. It meant constant blood testing and through that, realizing there was a heart condition to be dealt with.
The tests kept coming back "inconclusive" but with an indication by enzymes produced from the heart when it's in distress, they were able to determine some sort of flow restriction was taking place.
Eventually a treadmill test showed that a heart cath process was needed to determined the seriousness of the restriction. Doctor Vederah conducted the 2 hourlong procedure and in so doing, was able to penetrate through the blockages he encountered with the catheter. If I understand him correctly,this of course reduces the danger of heart attack until insertion of stents is done sometime in the near future.
I eagerly anticipate the next move.
My most heartfelt thanks to the the Doctors, doctor's assistants, nurses and support staff. Six days under the care of these dedicated folks tells the real story of how stressful and sometimes intense their
jobs are every day. Everyone did their best under the circumstances. Hats off to all of you.
As a footnote to this story, I would respectfully like to suggest to the hospital administration that they pursue a more aggressive tact in communications both verbally and written so it flows smoothly from top to bottom. No specific person was at fault here. Individually they all strove to do their best.
I once gave a crash course in communications to a group of workers that involved staff from top to bottom. To demonstrate how a verbal message can get lost from one person to another, we took the General foreman into a separate room and gave him a message to pass on to his subordinate. The subordinate then passed on the message to his subordinate and so on until it reached the laborer. The laborer came back to me with the story. The story was so different it was humorous to us all. It was an open pit coal mine. The laborer wanted to know if we were on the right mountain range.
Thank you all for your time in reading this memo.
Respectfully your's, George McNaughton
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