St. John Medical Center Teamwork Results in Celebration of Life

DSC_1291-9

Amanda Van Schoor (third from left) with Dana Ingraham of Abiomed, cardiologist Naim Farhat, MD, and cardiologist Atul Hulyalkar, MD.

Pump Keeps Woman Alive for 9 Days While Heart Recovers

The results of teamwork and technology were clearly evidenced recently at St. John Medical Center (SJMC) when Westlake resident Amanda Van Schoor, 36, thanked her family and caregivers for saving her life after suffering a cardiac arrest.

Amanda’s life was celebrated at St. John Medical Center by her caregivers and Abiomed, makers of a miniature pump that can be threaded through an artery and placed inside the heart to help critically ill heart attack and heart failure patients by assisting the heart’s main pumping chamber to drive blood through the body.

Last Feb. 7, Amanda’s husband, Nick, had found his unresponsive wife on the floor, called 911 and followed the dispatcher’s instructions to provide CPR. Westlake EMS responded quickly and delivered Amanda to the SJMC Emergency Room, where caregivers found blood flow to Amanda’s brain and other vital organs were being compromised.

Within an hour, SJMC interventional cardiologist Naim Farhat, MD, and his team at SJMC inserted the Impella pump through a vein and into Amanda’s heart. She was life-flighted to University Hospitals, where the Impella pumped blood to her vital organs for nine days until Amanda’s heart recovered enough that it could pump on its own.

“We have a great team at SJMC,” said Atul Hulyalkar, MD, Amanda’s St. John Medical Center cardiologist. This case shows how, by working together, we can truly make a difference in our community.