(Car door slamming)
(Beeping) - 514 responding to chest pain
- Roger 514
(Car door slams, indistinguishable voice on intercom)
(Rock music, siren)
- It was around 8 o'clock, 8:15
just feeling terrible.
I was having difficulty breathing
and the pressure on my chest was excruciating.
(Dr. D’Onofrio) The emergency department is the front door of the hospital.
Here at York Street alone, we see over 92,000 visits a year.
We're the only place that's open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days out of the year.
(Muffled) Hi Mr. Ferriolo, I'm Dr. D’Onofrio, I'm the head doctor here...
- I'm Ron Ferriolo, I'm 70 years old and I'm from Branford, Connecticut.
Dr. D’Onofrio saved my life.
She kept testing and testing,
she knew there was something wrong
and she wouldn't let it go.
- The problem with coronary disease is that it's very difficult to diagnose.
Symptoms are not always what they appear in a textbook.
(Ron) They immediately got me hooked up to a EKG mechine
and they started asking me questions.
(Indistinguishable voices)
(Dr. D’Onofrio) When an EKG is flashed infront of my eyes, which it could be up to 50 times a shift,
I'm looking for a very specific pattern recognizition
which is telling me that a person is having a heart attack and needs to go to the laboratory.
I talked to the cardiologist and said, 'I know it's not a textbook case
but I just got a feeling about this.'
- Ron needed an emergency cardiac catheterization.
In this procedure we get to the heart as soon as possible
and fix the blockage if we encounter one.
(Muffled) - I feel wonderful and great. I feel just like a new person. I really do.
(Dr. Attaran) This here, are the arteries of your heart.
The dark areas represent bloodflow and, as you can see in this artery which is in the front of your heart,
there are two big bites taken out of it.
This one is almost 100 percent closed and this was the cause of your symptoms.
(Ron) There was no anaesthetic given,
the stent was put in my right wrist.
I just felt a pinch
and they were into my artery.
I've had some dental work that was more painful than this, actually.
(Dr. Attaran) This is called a coronary guide.
Pictures are taken through this and the
beauty of this device is that we're able to advance equipment through this right into the heart
including balloons, which open up a blockage
and stents, which keep the blockage open.
(Ron) Once they put the line in, it was probably a half hour, 45 minutes before they completed the task.
I felt great right away.
(Dr. Attaran) We were able to open up the area completely.
- Just unbelievable!
- There's nothing sudden about sudden cardiac disease.
It's something that grows over a period of time.
People develop plaques in their coronary arteries and then all of a sudden the vessel clogs
and then we are presenting with an acute heart attack.
(Ron) I stayed overnight and actually one additional day after that
(Indistinguishable voices)
I was able to get up the next day and walk around
just like nothing had happened
(Dr. D’Onofrio) Depending on the patient, we might have seconds to function.
Other times patients come in, they do not look that bad
but there's something about it that makes you more worried than usual.
That's a lot of judgement, that's the kind of art and experience that comes with working the emergency department for a long period of time.
(Ron) Yale Medicine has really impacted my life
Dr. D’Onofrio and her team they were all fantastic.
I owe her my life, I really do.