Here are some Cardiac Patient Stories from the Saint Barnabas Health
Care System.
Michele admits that had she felt the dull
pain in the middle of the night she might have
passed it off or waited until the morning. Luckily
for her, the pain came while she was en route to
a meeting at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center
where she is Chief Technologist in the Special
Coagulation Lab. As she approached the Emergency
Department on her way, she was aware that the pain,
dead center in her chest, was a pain she had never
felt before. The decision to go to the Emergency
Department was one that she will never regret.
Still, her abnormal EKG, and swift move to the
cardiac catheterization lab for a balloon angioplasty
to clear a clot in her artery, were bewildering
to the active 53 year old. “I had none of
the risk factors associated with heart disease
so it was a mystery,” reflects Michele. “But
it taught me not to gloss over symptoms, feel it
is inconvenient or be embarrassed about getting
help. Heart disease affects men and women, young
and old.”
While her emotions were up and down as she came
to grips with her situation, her husband, Bill,
and her two grown daughters, helped her through.
But she credits Marc Cohen, M.D., Director of Cardiology
at Newark Beth Israel, along with the team in the
Emergency and Cardiology Departments, for their
quick assessment and rapid intervention that saved
her life. “I was pretty much putty in their
hands,” she recalls, “but they explained
everything that was happening along the way.” Miraculously,
Michele was back to work in less than two weeks.
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