Couple thankful for efficient medical response at CRH

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman

Lethbridge Herald

A lot can happen in the span of three hours.

A Calgary couple wants to thank the Chinook Regional Hospital Emergency Department for its prompt response to their emergency and saving a life.

For Shauna and Mike Dardis a trip to Lethbridge for their son’s swim meet turned into a trip to the ER that saved Mike’s life in a “being at the right place at the right time” scenario.

During the morning of Feb. 5, 2022 Mike began to experience a pain in his shoulder that radiated to his finger tips but went away.

“When we went to the morning session, sat there for probably three hours without any issues and it was just when we got up to leave and wait for our son, that upstairs waiting for him to come out — it came back and it was very intense,” said Mike.

Mike said it was at that point he turned to Shauna and said they needed to get that checked out.

“Walked right into the Emergency Department, they triaged me right away. I was probably in a bed within less than 10 minutes,” said Mike.

Shauna said the ER doctor came in and did an ECG (Electrocardiogram) and said it looked great but decided to do a CT scan because they recently had recovered from COVID-19.

“And she said I think we better do a CT scan ’cause we’d all had cold recently in our house so she (doctor) said let’s make sure there’s nothing else going on kind of post COVID,” said Shauna.

Shauna said that in the time that it took the doctor to go to the desk to order the CT, Mike’s condition worsened.

“I was right beside him, just kind of talking getting an IV in him and then my husband just said ‘Oh my God the pain is coming back Shauna, now Oh my God I’m getting really dizzy’ and then that was kind of it. He was out,” said Shauna.

It was then when Mike had a heart attack.

“He was still hooked up to the ECG so I can see it… the nurse immediately started CPR, she was calling code blue, everybody came running into the room,” said Shauna.

She said she remembers thinking “this is like a CPR video,” as she recently had renewed her CPR.

“I just truly couldn’t believe how slick they were as a team, watching them as a team communicate with each other, talk to each other,” said Shauna.

Shauna said that after they brought him back, they treated him, provided him with medications and contacted STARS to transfer him to Foothills Hospital in Calgary to go to the Cath lab.

“The pilot called me, ‘just dropped him off outside the Cath lab. He’s doing fine not stable but he’s doing fine, he’s alert.’ After the Cath lab the physician called me: ‘we’ve admitted him to the unit and here he is,'” said Shauna.

Shauna said everything from the arrival to the ER to him arriving in Calgary happened in a matter of three hours.

“We walked into the ER at about 12:45 p.m. Mike was in a bed in five minutes and coded like I would say within five minutes. And then was in STARS on his way to Calgary at 3:00 p.m. and probably got to Calgary at about 3:45 p.m.” said Shauna.

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