BAY SHORE, NY -- Remember last summer?  How did you spend it? Did you go to the beach?  Take in a ball game? Go on vacation?  Sixty-six-year old Kathleen Montefusco didn’t do any of those things and she had the most eventful summer of her life. 

Back when the weather just started getting warm, Kathleen described having a pain deep in her chest that travelled to her back.  “When it was happening, I didn’t think of it being my heart,” she said. “I was just nervous about the pain.”

Frightened, she called her daughter who immediately called Southside Hospital.  Shortly thereafter, Kathleen found herself in an ambulance on her way to Southside, where she underwent an emergency cardiac catheterization procedure.  Her doctors discovered that her heart function was at a dangerously low 20 percent.  Kathleen went into cardiac arrest and needed cardio pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to stay alive.

“It’s a miracle I’m still here,” Kathleen said. “My doctor said if I wasn’t at the right place at the right time, I wouldn’t be here today.”

A Sudden Onset of Pain

Kathleen had a history of hypertension but the sudden onset of chest pain surprised her. “Prior to the chest pain, I had indigestion. I felt a little tired but I didn’t think much of it.”  She soon discovered it was far more serious than she ever imagined. 
 
Robert Blenderman, director of Cardiovascular and Thoracic surgery for the North Shore-LIJ Health System, explained, “Kathleen presented to the hospital with severely unstable coronary artery disease.  We discovered three blocked arteries during the cardiac catheterization procedure. Kathleen was in the middle of an evolving heart attack.”

Of the three blocked arteries, Kathleen said one was completely closed and the other two were 90 and 80 percent blocked.

 “Because she was in cardiogenic shock, an intra-aortic balloon device was placed to support her heart function,” explained Jay Enden, MD, Southside’s medical director. “The decision to have Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) surgery was made immediately.  One of the main arteries had significant blockage which meant there was an extremely low level of oxygen going to her heart muscle – making the heart incapable of functioning.  The disease was significant enough that she was not a candidate for stenting – a procedure that uses a stent to open and keep open the closed artery. She needed open-heart surgery.”

Planning for Tomorrow

Transferred to North Shore University Hospital (NSUH) in Manhasset, Kathleen was placed on a heart-lung machine and had emergency triple coronary bypass graft surgery performed by Alan Hartman, MD, chairman of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at NSUH and LIJ Medical Center.

“Kathleen came to us in very serious condition,” Dr. Hartman said. “She had several arterial blockages of eighty percent or greater.  These blockages, the fact that she was in cardiogenic shock and in the middle of an evolving heart attack made Kathleen a certain fatality if left untreated. Fortunately, that was not the case.  We were able to intervene and Kathleen now has an excellent prognosis for the future.”

“Dr. Hartman and his entire team were phenomenal,” Kathleen said, “From his skill as a surgeon to his bedside manner, to the willingness of every person on his team to answer every single question my family and I had – the care I received was truly amazing.”

For the energetic woman who worked as a sales associate prior to her heart surgery, the summer that started off with an event that could have claimed her life turned into the summer, where she began a new one.

“Since the surgery, I’ve been fine,” Kathleen said. “I’ve lost weight and look at life completely differently.  I feel like a new person.”  She said she looks forward to returning to work and continuing to have a full, active life. “Thanks to Southside and the care I received later from Dr. Hartman and his team, I’m still alive. I don’t look at yesterday anymore. I look at today and plan for tomorrow.”

Even though Kathleen’s focused on the future, when she does take the time to look back she acknowledges she’ll look back at the summer of 2009 as being her most important summer ever.

Media Contact:
Brian Mulligan
(516)465-2618
bmulliga@nshs.edu