My husband had been admitted to Baptist Desoto through the ER with chest tightness. With his history of heart issues including by-pass surgery and several stents, we expected that he would have a heart Cath at some point during the next day. He was receiving pain meds and placed on a heparin drip to keep his blood thin and flowing while in the ER.
We were sent to ICU stepdown early in the morning. Meagan Qualls came on duty as his nurse when the shift changed. She entered his room with her cart computer ready to do her early morning patient routine. She was very friendly, caring, and comforting. As protocol, she asked his pain level and he told her his pain had just become really sharp and was now in his neck and jaw with his chest really tight. He told her 10 plus. She checked his heparin IV and immediately left the room at a quick pace to get his pain med. She met his cardiologist as he stepped onto the floor. Together they returned to his room within just seconds of her leaving. The doctor listened to his chest and immediately called the Cath lab. In just seconds, Cath lab techs were in the room rushing my husband out for an emergency cath. The interventional cardiologist found a blood clot in his heart and he was indeed having a major heart attack. The doctor was able to laser the clot and place two stents in his heart. He was sent to ICU after those procedures, very weak but alive.
I know that Meagan's prompt action saved his life. Had she not grabbed the doctor as he walked onto the floor, my husband could very well have not made it. As he entered the room, the doctor's first words were, "I had no idea you were in here. I came to see another patient and the nurse just grabbed me in the hall." I know that God sent Meagan to be his nurse that day and I also understand this is not her usual floor to work. I do know that her expertise in recognizing what was happening and her quick action in bringing the doctor to the room saved his life.
Anyone having Meagan as a nurse is truly blessed and we just happened to be the ones blessed on this day. In our office visit one week later, my husband's doctor agreed with us that it had to be a "God wink" that Meagan was there and acted so promptly. He is beginning rehab now and is expected to regain much of the heart muscle damaged in the attack.