Teen Visits Europe After Atlanta's Piedmont Hospital Saves His Life

On August 1, 2009, while running his high school's cross country trials, Scott suffered a massive heart attack and fell into a ravine. A school grounds keeper who was working an extra shift just happened to glance back over his shoulder after passing Scott just as Scott collapsed and fell into the ravine.

A surgeon from Piedmont Hospital just happened to be there watching his own son run and was able to start CPR.

The school's athletic trainer, who just happened to start her first day 15 minutes earlier, went first to get the schools defibrillator before running to the scene which saved valuable, lifesaving time.

Upon arriving at Piedmont hospital, Scott's heart and lungs were completely failing. He was becoming increasingly unstable. Dr. Anna Kalynych induced hypothermia through Arctic Sun "cold therapy," available at few hospitals nationwide, to preserve brain function.

Kalynych then called Vivek Rajagopal, an interventional cardiologist who just happened to have moved to Piedmont recently from the Cleveland Clinic. He was also the only doctor at Piedmont and possibly in Atlanta who could have performed the series of procedures — TandemHeart pump used in conjunction with extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) to bypass the heart and lungs and maintain blood and oxygen flow to the vital organs — that saved Scott's life and full function of all his organs and brain. He wasn't on call, but Rajagopal just happened to answer his cell phone and then rushed to the hospital to help Scott.

During the procedures, Scott's right leg started to lose blood flow. As, he was too unstable for surgery, so the doctor improvised again—threading a tube under his skin from one leg to the other, providing enough blood flow to save most of the limb.

When doctors warmed Scott back up, his heart and lungs were improving and his brain function was amazingly normal.

Scott spent the next 51 days at Piedmont trying to save his leg which had formed clots from the heroic measures used to save his life. However, Scott lost that battle and his right leg was amputated below the knee.

This Monday, August 2, 2010 Scott will add another miracle to his list. Scott will run and finish the cross-country race he was running last year when he suffered his near fatal heart attack. It will be a glorious, triumphant event not only for Scott, but his family, friends, classmates and all the incredible people whose skill and effort saved his life.

Piedmont Hospital: http://www.piedmonthospital.org/

Piedmont Heart Institute: http://www.piedmontheart.org/Default.asp

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[smh2000s]

A heat-warming story. =)