Boris Guillome
Photo: Boris Guillome (center) with Sean Reiswig (left) and Andrew Wong,
MD (right).
Boris Guillome experienced sudden cardiac arrest on Monday, February 18,
2019. Thanks to the kindness of strangers—and the excellent care
he received at Queen of the Valley Medical Center—he lived to tell
his story.
It was President’s Day and Boris had decided to go to a movie. As
he looks back on that fateful day, he recalls as the movie previews started,
he felt tightness in his chest. The pain intensified; he knew something
was wrong. Boris staggered towards the lobby, making it only to the ticket
stand, where a custodian helped him to a bench. Then everything went black;
his heart had stopped.
That’s when the clock started ticking for Boris because “time
is muscle.” The faster a physician can restore vital blood flow,
the less likelihood there is of long-term damage to the heart muscle.
Lucky for Boris, Sean Reiswig had just entered the theater with his family.
Watching Boris fall to the ground, Sean, whose own father had died from
a heart attack exactly two weeks earlier, knew he had to help. While the
custodian called 911, Sean checked Boris for breathing, rolled him on
to his back and began CPR.
Napa City Fire Department paramedics arrived minutes later and immediately
set up communication with the radio nurse at Queen of the Valley Medical
Center’s Gasser Emergency Department (ED). The paramedics resuscitated
Boris by shocking his heart with an assisted external defibrillator and
conducted an ECG—the first test when cardiac arrest is suspected—to
record the electrical activity of his heart.
The paramedics sent the ECG results to the Queen’s ED and while Boris
was in transport, the Emergency doctor was reviewing his test and assembling
a cardiology team.
At 2:19pm Boris was wheeled through the doors of the ED. At 2:20 Cardiologist
Andrew Wong, MD, was at his side. At 2:40, Boris was transferred to the
Cath Lab for an emergency percutaneous coronary intervention. Twenty-two
minutes later, Dr. Wong completed a stent placement.
Did you know that the national standard for “door-to-balloon time”
(arrival at the hospital to balloon inflation) is 90 minutes? At the Queen,
our goal is 60 minutes—or less.
Thanks to the Queen’s 24/7 comprehensive cardiovascular services,
Boris’s team beat the national average by 48 heart-preserving minutes!
One in five Americans suffers from heart disease.
In Napa County, it is the second leading cause of death. Maintaining such a high level of cardiac care at the Queen takes all of
us joining together.
Thankfully, Napa is a “Heart Safe Community.” That means we
have established a chain of survival
to improve our system for preventing sudden cardiac arrest from becoming
irreversible death. This includes promoting widespread CPR instruction, making public-access
AEDs readily available, and putting in place aggressive resuscitation
protocols for first responders and area hospitals. With cardiac care a
top priority here, the Queen strictly adheres to this program.
Fast, expert emergency care was the key to saving Boris’s life. Once
Dr. Wong had completed the stent procedure and his heart rhythm was stabilized,
Boris spent two days at the Queen recuperating. In that short time span
he was cared for by medical teams from nearly every other department—the
lab, pharmacy, imaging, cardiology, ICU, med-surg, telemetry and more.
Doctors, nurses, nurse assistants, lab technicians, radiologists and administrators
all worked to ensure the best possible outcome for Boris.
Until that Monday, Boris considered himself a healthy 44-year-old; he worked
out five days a week, never smoked and ate well. But anyone can be affected
by heart disease.
That’s why this comprehensive care is available for every patient
who comes through our doors—any hour, day or night—thanks
to generous donors like you.
Boris knows his fate may have been very different if it weren’t for
the compassion of strangers, the rapid response of the paramedics, the
cardiac team at the Queen—and most importantly, our community’s generosity, which helps make high-quality cardiac care a life-saving reality in Napa Valley.