>>>>>>This suddenly seems pretty trivial to me. I got a call an hour ago from my brother Kevin saying our mom had a heart attack this morning and was in the ER. I worked my way through the phone system at Maine Med and got to the ER and then a ward nurse on a different ward. She couldn't give me much information with HIPAA and privacy laws but I take it as encouraging that she was moved out of the ER. She said she would ask the attending doctor to call me. My mom has lived in Maine her whole life and is 79 years old with some health issues. You never know how serious they are because she is a true Mainer, never complaining unless maybe she has a gunshot wound. Fingers crossed....
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>>>>>Hope your mom gets well quickly.
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>>>>The news has gotten significantly better. They found that one of her ventricles was 90% blocked, which they blamed for the heart attack. They cleared that. She is not allowed phone calls yet but I was told she is awake and alert. The doctor did call me and said she is fine and should be released on Saturday. (Indian; have I happened to mention that I like immigrants?). What an enormous relief.
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>>>Wonderful! With a lot of heart issues, the treatments and repairs are so far advanced now as to be almost routine and the recovery rate is generally terrific. Glad this one went well.
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>>I was able to get her on the phone yesterday and again this morning. You're right about how advanced treatments have become. It still amazes me that she had a heart attack in the morning and sounded like her normal self in the afternoon. I don't know exactly what the procedure was to clear the ventricle but they didn't have to cut her open.
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>That is truly the amazing part. All cardio stuff used to involve "cracking" the chest, which of course is traumatic. Now the can insert balloons and stints and open passages and keep them open and ever remove blockages by snaking through the vessels themselves. Amazing stuff.
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>Good luck to her. The nice thing for peace of mind is that while a cardio patient is actually in the hospital they are probably safer from cardiac events than they've ever been in their lives.

No doubt.

She said she is getting even better care than usual because I let the duty nurse know she was an RN. I'm sure they give great care to all their patients but I bet there is a little extra when it's one of your own.