Heart surgery leads an Oakville

Patient Story:

A Matter of Seconds...

It was a matter of seconds — 90 seconds to be exact — that made the difference between life and death for Gary Montgomery. Montgomery, 45, was working in his real estate office one Saturday, but left after feeling ill. At home, as the evening wore on, he began experiencing a tightness in his chest. Two weeks earlier, he had experienced a similar sensation that cleared up when he took aspirin. This time, it didn’t go away.

“Around 9 p.m. the tightness turned to pressure and my left arm started burning,” he says. “That’s when I got scared and told my wife she’d better take me to the hospital.”

Montgomery collapsed just as his wife, Loralee, pulled into the parking lot of St. Anthony’s Medical Center. She ran, shouting for help, and three nurses raced outside. One quickly checked for a pulse and began chest compressions inside the couple’s truck. She kept compressions going as Montgomery was moved into the hospital.

Within four to six minutes after the heart stops beating, the heart muscle sustains damage and brain cells begin to die. Montgomery’s heart was down for two and a half minutes.

“They had to shock my heart six times in the Emergency Department, then they took me straight to the cardiac catheterization lab,” Montgomery says.

“They found out which vessel was blocked and put in a stent to open it up — all in 12 minutes! The doctor said I had a massive heart attack, and if one small thing had caused a delay in treatment, I wouldn’t have made it.”

Three days later, Montgomery was back home in Arnold, feeling better than he had in months. “As soon as I woke up, I could feel the difference,” he says. “The doctor said I have no heart damage, and he expects me to recover 100 percent.”

Montgomery is grateful for the fast, efficient treatment he received at St. Anthony’s Chest Pain Center. “The nurses and doctors are just unbelievable,” he says. “The fact that I’m alive today, I give credit first to God and second to St. Anthony’s.”

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