Geneva woman example of why quick action can save lives after a heart attack

Geneva resident Sue Burton was walking her dog in December when she began to feel a little flushed and dizzy. After her vision began blurring, she sat down in a neighbor's lawn.

Luckily, the neighbor recognized Burton, 68, was in distress and ran to find Burton's husband and called 911. A few minutes later, Burton was in an ambulance and on her way to Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital, where she quickly was diagnosed with suffering a heart attack.

Interventional cardiologist William P. Towne performed an angioplasty on two arteries and placed a coronary stent to hold the artery open, according to a news release from Delnor Hospital.

“I eat healthy and am very active, so the furthest thing in my mind was that it had something to do with my heart. I just thought I was a little dizzy,” Burton said. “If I hadn't sat down in the grass, but managed to get home, I probably wouldn't have put two and two together and wouldn't have called 911.”

Experts at Northwestern Medicine said Burton's husband and neighbor did the right thing by calling 911.

“Timing is everything when it comes to surviving a heart attack. The risk of death and disability increases with every passing minute,” said Dr. Nauman Mushtaq, an interventional cardiologist and medical director of the Northwestern Medicine Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute at Delnor Hospital.

“The quicker one can activate emergency medical services, the better the outcome.”

In 2021 and 2022, fewer than half of patients with chest pain diagnosed as a heart attack came to the Delnor Emergency Department via ambulance. The other half either drove themselves or were driven, which delays diagnosis and rapid treatment, the release stated.

“Calling 911 will have paramedics to you in minutes, initiating possible lifesaving assessment and treatment. An EKG will be performed quickly and interpreted by medics trained to read EKGs, as well transmitted to the Emergency Department's care point radio, where an emergency physician will also be reviewing it to confirm if it's a STEMI,” said Dr. Arthur Proust, EMS medical director for the Southern Fox EMS System and an emergency medicine physician at Delnor.

According to the release, a STEMI occurs when an artery supplying blood to the heart becomes partially or completely blocked. STEMI patients require immediate reperfusion therapy to restore blood flow, or the heart muscle begins to die. That may include thrombolytic drugs, angioplasty or immediate coronary artery bypass grafting surgery.

When the STEMI call comes in from the paramedics, the cardiac team begins setting up the catheterization lab. When the patient arrives, the clinical team can quickly transport the patient to the lab for a diagnostic angiogram and immediate treatment, the release stated.

American Heart Association guidelines recommend STEMI patients receive artery-clearing treatment within 90 minutes of arriving at the hospital. In 2022, Delnor patients who arrived via ambulance, on average, had blood flow re-established in 60 minutes. For those who did not come via ambulance, the average was 74 minutes, a 14-minute difference.

“It would be our goal to have everyone who is experiencing possible symptoms of a heart attack to call 911. We know with absolute certainty that will reduce mortality by arriving to the Emergency Room sooner as our cardiac team simultaneously is being mobilized,” Proust said.

Symptoms of a heart attack include:

Breaking out in a cold sweat;

Chest discomfort, which may include pressure or a squeezing pain in the center of the chest, spreading to the neck, shoulder or jaw;

Dizziness;

Nausea;

Shortness of breath, which may occur with or without chest discomfort.

As with men, women's most common heart attack symptom is chest pain, but women often report the symptoms are more subtle. Women are also more likely to experience other symptoms that are typically less associated with heart attack, such as shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting and back or jaw pain, the release stated.

“I had zero pain during my heart attack,” Burton said. “If you have in your head that you are only having a heart attack if you have chest-gripping pain, then you are wrong.”

Following her heart procedure, Burton spent a few days in the hospital and now attends cardiac rehabilitation three times a week. She is feeling great and looking forward to a hiking vacation with her husband.

“I can't tell you how happy I am that someone called 911,” she said.

For more information about cardiovascular services at Northwestern Medicine, visit heart.nm.org.