ADVERTISEMENT
Poetry
I. Primary Angioplasty (doctor)
Sarah’s cheerful face
Popped through the cath lab door, “There’s an inferior MI in A&E 34-year-old man. Other lab is busy.”
I had just finished Angio-Sealing
The last double-vessel PCI;
“Ready when you are Sarah,” I smiled. “Primaries are always a pleasure.”
In four minutes our man was wheeled in, slightly drowsy but still in pain. I speak calmly to him, then
Check the consent form. “Start the Reopro please. We’ll go femoral.”
As expected, the right coronary artery Is occluded with thrombus. As I pass a BMW wire
There’s TIMI-2 flow. “I’ll have a 2.5 by 15 balloon,” I say
To my assistant. The balloon inflation
Restores flow completely. “Can I have a 3 by 16 Taxus please?” I
Ask again. The final result after stent deployment is excellent. The tombstone ST elevation on the ECG has settled.
Our patient is blissfully asleep. Satisfied, I take the Angio-Seal shot.
II. Primary Angioplasty (patient)
Like a nuclear explosion
It went on
And on
Blowing my heart
To smithereens.
Raging inferno In the chest,
Arms like lead,
Sweat on my palms
Sweat in my hair
Gushy waves of sickness
Thundered through my body.
My mind was screaming
Into a black hole,
A sea of pain and more pain;
There were distant voices...
“STEMI…air ambulance is best… Phone the cath lab…”
Someone was doing something to my arm.
I felt a sudden sweetness
Sweeping my body,
My mind was calmer
And drowsy…floating away…
“You are having a heart attack, sir. We need to open the blocked heart artery. Could you sign on that line?”
They were shaking my shoulders hard. I scribbled in a haze of drowsiness and pain.
I remember being rushed
On a trolley
A blur of
Banging doors
Then silence and
The intense cold
In the lab.
Crisp commands slashing the silence, “Start the Reopro please. I will have a 2.5 by 15 balloon.”
The voice was strong and confident. What was he asking for next? A daxus? Suddenly the pain was
Gone.
Relief was flooding in
And fatigue…extreme fatigue.
Too tired to breathe …can’t think…
Lead eyes…
