Fast Work by Silver Cross Medical Group Lemont 150 Team Saves Bolingbrook Man Suffering Serious Heart Attack

Ed Larsen was just about to head out the door after making a follow-up appointment Dec. 3 at Silver Cross Medical Group in Lemont when he felt an excruciating pain in his left shoulder. 

“Then, it spread to my back. It felt like someone was stabbing me, the pain was so bad,” said Larsen, 71, of Bolingbrook. 

“The lady up front said, ‘You don’t look so good.’ I said, ‘I don’t feel so good.’” 

Patient Services Representative Shauna Tauer immediately notified Medical Assistants Itzel Torres and April Marlowe, who brought him into an exam room to sit down. 

As Tauer called for an ambulance, Ashley Miniet, Family Nurse Practitioner, and Dr. Mary Dea, whom Larsen had just seen for an unrelated issue, placed him on the floor and began to assess him. 

Knowing Larsen had a history of coronary artery disease with multiple stents, Torres and Marlowe administered oxygen, aspirin and nitroglycerin, and brought in an AED (automated external defibrillator). 

Larsen said he doesn’t remember much after being laid to the floor and then put into an ambulance headed for Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox. 

“Next thing I know, they’re wheeling me into an operating room,” Larsen said. “I told them, ‘Tell my wife I love her.’” 

Thanks to a successful procedure to implant another stent, Larsen could tell his wife Sandy himself when he woke up. 

“Mr. Larsen was found to be having a STEMI, one of the more severe types of heart attacks, where an artery is nearly totally clogged,” said Miniet. “If not treated within 90 minutes of onset, there could be severe heart damage or death. The Lemont team worked hard as a unit, which in turn saved this patient’s life. I’m very proud of my team.” 

Larsen is thankful he hadn’t left the Lemont office yet. 

“Another few minutes, and I would have been driving,” he said. “But they were there and helped save my life. I’m feeling better every day. I’m very grateful.” 

For more information or to schedule a $49 heart scan, visit silvercross.org/heart