Call 800-554-9550 for
print
pageHeart Care Services
See What St. Anthony's Can Do For You:
Maria Scydick Did
10:20 p.m., on New Year’s Eve.
Maria Scydick (right) and Traci Moore, RN (left) at the Genesis Club.
In the midst of a slow dance at the Genesis Club in south St. Louis County, Maria Scydick, 67, felt sudden pains in her chest. Within seconds she collapsed in the middle of the dance floor, stricken by a heart attack. “All I remember is falling to the floor,” she says. “There were no warning symptoms or anything.”
Two nurses in the crowd rushed forward. “She wasn’t breathing, and we realized she didn’t even have a pulse,” says Traci Moore, RN, a nurse at Midwest Cardiovascular Center at St. Anthony’s. “We started CPR almost immediately and kept it up until the paramedics arrived.”
Equipped with an advanced portable defibrillator donated by St. Anthony’s, paramedics from the Mehlville Fire Protection District “shocked” Scydick three times before they were able to restore her heartbeat. As they prepared to rush her to the hospital, the team used a cell phone to transmit heart data directly to St. Anthony’s Emergency Department. By the time Scydick arrived, emergency physicians were ready and waiting.
There’s no doubt that Mrs. Scydick’s life was saved due to the speed with which emergency procedures were performed on site, and by the emergency team having all her data transmitted to the hospital prior to her arrival.”
It was later determined that an artery in Scydick’s heart was almost completely blocked. She underwent a cardiac catheterization procedure to remove the blockage, and a stent was inserted to keep the artery open.
“Mom was in the hospital for 24 days and continues to undergo therapy,” says her son, Michael, 43, who himself suffered a heart attack two years ago. “We have a strong history of heart disease in our family, but I guess Mom never thought it would happen to her.
“She wasn't going to go to that New Year's Eve dance,” he adds, “but we’re glad she did. Otherwise she would have been home alone. We’re lucky everyone was in the right place at the right time.”
For information or a physician referral, please call 800-554-9550 or visit our online physician referral.
At St. Anthony's, our vision is to be the area's premier health care organization — and your first choice for health care services.