{"id":196397,"date":"2023-03-16T11:21:34","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T15:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=196397"},"modified":"2023-03-16T16:23:42","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T20:23:42","slug":"urgent-care-saves-man-from-cardiac-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2023\/03\/urgent-care-saves-man-from-cardiac-arrest\/","title":{"rendered":"Urgent Care Saves Man from Cardiac Arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Thursday David LeBlanc, 68, of New Hartford wasn\u2019t feeling well. He thought it might be acid reflux. But then he started to feel worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of pain I was having in my chest became unbearable,\u201d LeBlanc recalls.\u00a0 \u201cI knew I was in a dire situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
David LeBlanc at UConn John Dempsey Hospital where he received heart attack care in the Cardiac Cath Lab.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His wife Ann started driving him toward UConn John Dempsey Hospital\u2019s Emergency Department.<\/p>\n

But when the chest pain became more severe they decided to stop on the way just in case at the UConn Health Canton Urgent Care for medical attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were on our way to the hospital. But we made a decision to stop,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I am so glad we did!\u201d<\/p>\n

LeBlanc was only at the UConn Health Canton Urgent Care for a few minutes while Physician Assistant Barbara Pelletier was talking with him about his chest pain symptoms and taking his vitals, when she noticed something was very wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe EKG showed that he was having a STEMI, a dangerous type of heart attack!\u201d recounts Pelletier. ST-elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI) is a heart attack caused by a heart artery being severely blocked and limiting blood flow to the heart muscle.<\/p>\n

The Urgent Care team called 9-1-1 but while awaiting the ambulance\u2019s arrival, the worst happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe patient coded. His heart stopped. He died. The staff started CPR right away, then we shocked him with an AED,\u201d recounts Pelletier. \u201cIt was scary! But we kept working on him, held his wife\u2019s hand, and the UConn ambulance took him to our hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"UConn
Enroute to John Dempsey Hospital, UConn Paramedic Tony Ruggiero (left) re-performed CPR and re-shocked LeBlanc\u2019s heart again. He and his Paramedic Partner Frank Marotta (middle), were joined by UConn Fire Department EMT Andrew Faust (right), who was dispatched to assist the crew.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But on the way to the hospital inside the UConn ambulance LeBlanc’s heart stopped again. But UConn ambulance and UConn Fire Department staff played an additional critical lifesaving role in performing CPR again and shocking his heart with a defibrillator to revive him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were so many staff there helping him,\u201d recalls his wife Ann.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did CPR. They brought me back to life!\u201d exclaims LeBlanc.<\/p>\n

Pelletier and the entire UConn Health care team is overjoyed too with the patient\u2019s successful outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still reeling,\u201d reports Pelletier who led the care team\u2019s response. \u201cThis was a one in a million lifesaving care experience. We are so glad he made it to our UConn Health Canton Urgent Care, our UConn ambulance, and to our hospital for lifesaving care,\u201d shared Pelletier. \u201cA very happy ending for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

LeBlanc stresses: \u201cWe made the right decision to stop. If we didn\u2019t I wouldn\u2019t have had this best outcome. It worked out to be the right decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

His wife agrees.<\/p>\n

\"David
David LeBlanc.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe urgent care was wonderful! It was amazing what they did for him. Without them his outcome would be very different,\u201d believes Ann. \u201cWe really appreciate the help that we got from UConn Health.\u201d<\/p>\n

This weekend Pelletier, who helped perform lifesaving CPR on LeBlanc, stopped by his UConn John Dempsey Hospital room to visit LeBlanc and see how he was doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to see him and say hi,\u201d said Pelletier. \u201cWe all cried \u2013 and had a wonderful moment together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great to see her,\u201d says LeBlanc. \u201cMy wife Ann gave her a big hug! We are so grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

After surviving cardiac arrest and receiving emergency heart care at UConn John Dempsey Hospital, LeBlanc says he is feeling much better. UConn Health\u2019s Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center Interventional Cardiologist Dr. Peter Robinson successfully inserted a cardiac stent to open up the dangerous heart artery blockage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am feeling good! I feel a big difference,\u201d shared LeBlanc. \u201cI really do feel much better! The nurses and doctors here at UConn Health are incredible. It feels good to be alive \u2013 and to be able to have a chance to be still living to hold my future grandchildren someday.\u201d<\/p>\n

His strong message to others is: \u201cDon\u2019t ignore any possible heart attack symptoms including acid reflux.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks so much to the UConn Health Urgent Care for the exceptional, quality care of this patient. Job well done,\u201d shared Anne Horbatuck, chief operating officer for UConn Medical Group and vice president of Ambulatory Services at UConn Health.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entire staff relied on their training and immediately took the appropriate steps to deliver the care necessary and provided life saving measures.\u00a0Thank you for all you do every day to make sure our patients receive the care they need,\u201d shared UConn Health\u2019s Meghan Cavanaugh, director of Ambulatory Care\/Canton, Simsbury, Torrington & Urgent Cares.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThey did CPR. They brought me back to life!\u201d says very grateful heart attack survivor David LeBlanc whose life was saved thanks to UConn Health Canton Urgent Care staff on March 9, along with UConn ambulance and rapid heart attack care by UConn John Dempsey Hospital. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":196399,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1969,179],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1873],"class_list":["post-196397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cardiology","category-uconn-health"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 17:56:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196397"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196432,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196397\/revisions\/196432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/196399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196397"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=196397"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=196397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}