By Emily Lawson

The Herald Bulletin

ANDERSON — At first glance, Roger Beeson doesn’t seem like the average heart attack victim.

He exercises regularly at home and is a member of a local biking group.

“I use my Bowflex quite a bit and I’m in a bicycle club. We bike 30 to 40 miles at a time. I would say I’m pretty active.”

Although he considers himself active, the 67-year-old wasn’t exactly taken by surprise when he had to be rushed to the Community Hospital emergency room, 1515 N Madison Avenue, due to a myocardial infarction.

“It’s a hereditary situation. My dad had seven heart attacks and strokes. My brother had a quadruple bypass. So, I’ve always tried to prevent the same thing from happening to me, but I was always aware of my situation” the Alexandria resident said.

But Beeson’s attempt at prevention fell short.

Emergency room nurse Heather Hall, who helped Beeson that morning, recalled, “At 9:16 a.m. on a Friday, Beeson came into the ER.” Friday is one of the days an interventionist is in the cath lab at Community.

“As soon as he came in and complained of chest pain, we ran an EKG and that’s when we realized he was having a heart attack. The ER doctor called the cardiologist in the lab and we began prepping Roger for surgery.”

“At one point we had a paramedic, three nurses, and a physician in the room helping him,” she said.

Within minutes Beeson was rushed to the catheterization laboratory. The quick move likely saved his life.

“When Mr. Beeson arrived in the lab and we began the procedure, it took no more than 15 minutes to put the stent in,” said Dr. Robertson, M.D., cardiologist, who performed the procedure.

Beeson had what is called STEMI (ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction), where the coronary artery is completely blocked by a blood clot; the heart muscle being supplied by the affected artery starts to die.

According to the cardiologist, who travels to Community’s cath lab once a week, the speedy manner in which the hospital was able to treat a STEMI sufferer isn’t unusual.

“National standard of care is a 90-minute door-to-balloon time for STEMI labs. That means that the time that passes between the moment the patient hits the ER doors to the moment they are on our table being operated on, should be no more than 90 minutes” said Robertson, who performed Beeson’s surgery.

“He came to the lab right away. His door-to-balloon time was about 37 minutes, which is about what it should be. He suffered no damage to heart tissue.”

What was unusual, however, was the luck of his situation. Yes, luck.

Community hasn’t always been able to provide patients with this type of service, but within the last few years they have.

“About three years ago, we started having the lab open about one day of the week,” said Mike Zard, special procedures manager of the cath lab. “It started out as kind of a trial. They were all elective cases, so they were scheduled. Then it just started building from there.”

“We went from doing 23 interventions the first year to, this year, we’ll probably be doing close to 200” Zard said.

The idea behind the lab is simple; it’s an attempt to better suit patient needs. Beeson just happened to be one of them.

“Three years ago, patients would have to go to Indianapolis to get something like Mr. Beeson’s procedure done. Now it’s in Anderson, close to home. A lot of people were born at Community or other local area hospitals, so they’re more comfortable with our staff,” Zard said.

“We can only offer it several days out of the week, but we’re so happy that people don’t have to drive far away to receive this care. We’re so happy we can offer this service.”

Beeson’s son, Ryan, said he felt the effect of the hosptial’s efforts.

“There was no down time, he was from the ER to surgery. Everything was taken care of so quickly there was no damage to the heart.” said the son. “The doctors and nurses did their job and they did it well.”

The heart attack victim, now fully recovered, couldn’t agree more. Beeson said, “I feel that Community Hospital did a fantastic job.”

Contact Emily Lawson, 640-4800.



A few minutes can save a life

People who suffer a heart attack known as ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) are less likely to have heart damage if they get to an emergency room and have a balloon installed within 90 minutes, according to a study by the American Heart Association.

An angioplasty balloon is used to open a blocked artery.

There are various warning signs beyond being attentive. For one, don’t ignore unusual pains.

Others include chest pain (possibly spreading to jaw or the neck area); shortness of breath; nausea or upper abdominal discomfort, light-headedness; irregularity in heart rate and blood pressure, or cold, sweaty skin. If experiencing any of these signs, visit your local hospital.