Houston man reunites with medical team who saved his life twice
HOUSTON - A father of five surprises the medical workers who saved his life to say thank you, on World Heart Day. He suffered a heart attack at home, but by the time he got to the hospital, he went into cardiac arrest two different times.
It was certainly an emotional moment when 64-year-old Scott Griffiths and his family met back up with the medical team at Memorial Hermann Northeast Hospital, who saved his life, not once, but twice! "I'm just so grateful to all of them because from what I have found out is, if any one of them didn't do their job, I wouldn't be here," says Scott, as he chokes back tears.
He recalls the moments before his life-altering event. "I just remember feeling really unusual and I had no chest pains that I remember. I just felt light-headed, like I was going pass out and I asked my daughter to take me to the ER and that's the last thing I remember," explains Scott.
Dr. Robert Salazar is an Interventional Cardiologist at Memorial Hermann Northeast Hospital and one of the doctors who stepped in to assist with Scott's dramatic medical situation. Here's how he helped bring him back to life the first time from cardiac arrest, while still in the emergency room. "The Cath Lab team and myself went to assist the ER doctors who were caring for him. He was getting CPR and medications that are necessary when somebody has an arrest event for the heart attack, and they were not able to get him back with just the standard approach. So, it became necessary to use a clot-busting drug while doing CPR," states Dr. Salazar.
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A special machine provided high-quality CPR before racing him to surgery to place a heart pump. "We brought him to the Cath Lab and put in a temporary heart pump. That was helpful and as we started to take pictures of the arteries of his heart, his heart again stopped beating, he had a second arrest event in the Cath Lab. So, we had to reapply the device to provide CPR, because his blood pressure was not high enough, even with the heart pump," describes Dr. Salazar. They revived him again and completed the procedure of removing the clot in his heart. Now the doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers get to relive those moments had no idea that Scott and his family would be their guest at this luncheon. "It's a no-brainer to come back and thank everybody. I really wanted to do it for a long time to let everybody know how much they meant to me. I'm just forever, eternally grateful to all of them for what they did. I mean they're, they're angels, all of them," says Scott.
The heart of the matter is, it's unusual for an entire medical team to see how a patient is doing six months after fighting for their life. This means the world to them. Many nurses were reduced to tears when reuniting with their patient. "He was absolutely a miracle case, and he did extremely well," says an ecstatic Dr. Salazar.
Now Scott is back to doing what he loves most, which includes playing the drums and riding cross-country on his motorcycle with one of his sons. He's also happy to report that he feels great!
For more information: https://www.memorialhermann.org/locations/northeast