Surviving a Heart Attack in Tulsa: How Saint Francis HVI is Changing the Odds

By Doug Ensley, M.D.
Advanced Heart Failure Specialist
Saint Francis Heart and Vascular Institute

A Heart Attack With Dangerously Low Blood Pressure Used to Be Nearly Unsurvivable. Not Anymore.

When a heart attack strikes and blood pressure crashes at the same time — a condition called cardiogenic shock — the body is in crisis. 

The heart can't pump enough blood to sustain vital organs. Every minute matters. And until recently, the options for treating it were severely limited, with mortality rates exceeding 50%. At Saint Francis, that prognosis is being rewritten.
 

A Dramatically Expanded Toolkit

For decades, patients in cardiogenic shock were treated primarily with medications to prop up blood pressure in the ICU. For many, survival beyond the first few hours was uncertain.

Today, Saint Francis offers a full spectrum of mechanical circulatory support — devices that physically assist or temporarily replace the work of a failing heart — paired with a comprehensive, protocolized response that begins the moment a patient arrives.

One of the most significant advances is the Impella, a small device inserted through a blood vessel in the leg or surgically through the arm. It supports the heart's output while the damaged muscle recovers — improving survival for heart attack patients in shock to 70 to 80 percent. 

For more severe cases involving failure of both sides of the heart, additional ventricular assist devices are available. ECMO — which takes over the work of both the heart and lungs when they can no longer function — is also part of the toolkit for the most critical patients.
 

A Team That Mobilizes Instantly

Technology alone doesn't save lives — the team behind it does. When a heart attack triggers a shock alert at Saint Francis, cardiology, the cardiac catheterization lab, echocardiography and the cardiovascular ICU team mobilize immediately and simultaneously. Every specialist needed is in motion before the patient reaches the door.

That level of coordination isn't accidental. It's protocolized, practiced and built around a core team of cardiac intensivists, cardiovascular surgeons and heart failure cardiologists who work together around the clock.

The key word here is team. Physicians sometimes function in their own silos, and that works well for many medical conditions. In the case of shock, however, a multidisciplinary team approach is absolutely critical."
— Dr. Ensley

Care This Advanced, Close to Home

Cardiogenic shock is one of the most complex and time-sensitive emergencies in medicine. 

The combination of advanced mechanical support, a coordinated shock response team and around-the-clock cardiovascular critical care means patients in eastern Oklahoma no longer need to be transferred out of the region for the highest level of care.

For patients and families facing a cardiac emergency, that means one less thing to worry about at the worst possible moment — and a significantly better chance of walking out the other side.