St. Elizabeth Health Center begins using highly touted heart procedure

By CHELSEA MILLER

TheNewsOutlet.org

CANFIELD

Pete Widera remembers Aug. 30 well.

At first, the signs were slight: tight chest and difficulty breathing. Fifteen minutes later, his wife, Jeanne Widera, 66, had a full-fledged heart attack.

The Canfield man called 9-1-1 and, after his wife was resuscitated, asked Lane Ambulance workers to take her to St. Elizabeth Health Center’s North Side campus, one of 13 Level I trauma centers in Ohio.

Four months later, Jeanne died.

He now wonders if his hospital choice may have cost Jeanne her life.

“If I knew then what I know now, I would have flown her to Cleveland,” he said.

Widera believes that his wife’s death may have been prevented if a procedure, called therapeutic hypothermia, had been used when she first came to the emergency room.

While it’s not uncommon for grieving family members to make such claims, therapeutic hypothermia is practiced at all 12 Level 1 trauma facilities in Ohio. Northside Medical Center in Youngstown, which is not a Level I Trauma Center, also uses the procedure.

Therapeutic hypothermia is performed with a cooling blanket that reduces body temperature to about 32 degrees, said Dr. Andrew Burger, a cardiologist at the University Hospital of Cincinnati, who uses this procedure at his facility. The body temperature is then closely monitored to slow body organs to reduce injury and brain damage.

“The equipment is not complex,” he said. “(Doctors have to) understand how it works, but it’s not hard.”

Although there are instances that don’t warrant the procedure, such as being brain-dead on arrival or showing no hope of recovery, Burger said the procedure is usually recommended.

It was unavailable last fall to treat Jeanne Widera.

St. E’s has it today.

Tina Creighton, spokesperson for St. Elizabeth’s, said the hospital decided to offer the procedure after other hospitals have proven it to be beneficial.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com