Resuscitated, now reunited: Man thanks team who saved his life

In May, John’s heart stopped. It happened moments after he stepped off the treadmill during what was supposed to be a simple stress echocardiogram, also known as a stress test. 

“I was huffing and puffing. My last clear memory was my heart rate being 140 on the treadmill and thinking oh, good. I can stop,” said John. 

What is a stress test 

The purpose of a stress echocardiogram is to see how well a person’s heart responds to exercise. The care team typically includes an exercise physiologist, a stress test nurse and a sonographer, who takes pictures of the heart before and after the patient uses the treadmill.  

“We check their vitals before, during and after the test,” said Mariah Mensing, an exercise physiologist at United Hospital – Hastings Regina Campus. “We make sure everything is coming back down to baseline. And that’s when he unfortunately coded.” 

Coded – meaning he went into cardiac arrest. Mariah immediately got on the overhead pager to call for help, while the stress test nurse started CPR. The code team arrived with the defibrillator and additional medications to help John.  

Every person in the hospital trains to be ready to respond to a code. This team, which included more than a dozen people, was more than ready. They worked for an hour to save him. Due to John’s condition and how difficult it would be to get him on a stretcher and moved to the ER, the team decided it would be best to bring any additional medications and supplies to him. 

“People had to go down elevators and through hallways to make sure we had what we needed so that we didn’t have to move him to the emergency department,” said Kasey Sturm, MD, the emergency room physician who led the team. 

Noticing the signs 

Just weeks before, John and his wife were in Spain celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary.  It was there, while on a six-day electronic bike tour that John noticed something was off. This was his second time on this type of e-bike tour, and he was struggling. 

“My stamina was a lot less than I had remembered, and I was getting winded a lot easier,” added John.  

He has always been vigilant about checking his heart, and he noticed he was reaching 80% of his max heart rate in the middle of inclines, which was unusual for him. “I decided that when I came home, I was going to have a visit with my doctor and just mention this to him,” added John. 

It was John’s doctor who referred him for the stress test. 

The diagnosis  

“It's really nothing short of a miracle, in my view, that I was able to make it through Spain on that long ride,” said John. “(It was) really a blessing in disguise that it (the cardiac arrest) occurred when I had all the helpers around. The crash cart was right there and so were people with the expertise to do top notch CPR.” 

It turns out John had four significant blockages in each chamber of his heart. Once the team in Hastings got him stable enough to be moved, Allina Health Emergency Medical Services (EMS) transported him to United Hospital in St. Paul. There, doctors with Allina Health Minneapolis Heart Institute placed four stents in his arteries. 

As his wife and two adult children waited for updates, so did the team at United Hospital – Hastings Regina Campus.  “When we first heard he was breathing on his own and upright and walking, we all breathed a sigh of relief,” said Mariah.  

Cardiac rehab 

John sees Mariah weekly for cardiac rehab. The heart is a muscle, and it needs exercise to recover and heal. This program provides education to help John make the best diet and exercise choices, while also allowing him to exercise under the watchful eye of clinicians who can tell him if he’s working his heart too hard or not pushing it enough. 

Celebration