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» A AMC MAGA Z I N E | W I N T E R 2 01 5
Better Together
It had been a good night. After
celebrating Mass, Father Jim
Kiesel, a pastor at St. Joseph
Parish in Odenton, took out
to dinner a group of seminary
students he was supervising.
“We had a ball,” Father Jim says.
“I felt great.”
But when he got home, Father Jim, 58,
says he started having pains in his chest
and a tingling down his arm. His chest felt
heavy. So he phoned a parishioner, who is
also a nurse, for advice.
“She told me to call 911 immediately.”
It was the best advice he could have
received. When Father Jim arrived at the
emergency room of AAMC, he was quickly
diagnosed with what’s called ST-segment
elevation myocardial infarction, or STEMI,
the most severe and dangerous form of
heart attack, in which the blood flow in a
coronary artery is completely blocked.
Elizabeth Reineck,
MD, an interventional
cardiologist at AAMC,
says the situation was
grave: “The artery to
the back side of his
heart was completely
blocked. We worked
rapidly to get him to the
catheterization lab and open up his artery.”
1,000 lives—and counting
Luckily, Father Jim had arrived at the right
place. AAMC’s Emergency Heart Attack
Program has saved more than 1,000 lives
since its introduction in 2002. It’s a certified
intervention center, and the response time is
among the best in the country.
“The goal is to open a patient’s artery
within 90 minutes from the time they
arrive at the hospital,” Dr. Reineck says.
“But here at AAMC, the vast majority of
our patients have their artery open within
60 minutes.”
Heaven
can wait
AAMC’s
world-class
cardiac care
saved Father
Jim Kiesel’s
heart
Is your heart at risk? Learn your heart age and risk for heart disease with our free assessment at
askAAMC.org/Heart
.
Elizabeth
Reineck, MD
“It wasn’t just
business—it
was genuine
care.”
—Father Jim Kiesel