Letter to the Editor: Great acute care in Big Sky and in Bozeman on March 13 may have saved my life

Dear Editor,

This was the latest of many trips to Big Sky since 1995, when I rode the old tram when it was new, but I didn’t get to ride the new one. My first day on the hill was with two excellent skiers, one a neighbor in Cleveland, and the other his old ski buddy. My wife and another couple we know in Ohio were coming out early the next week.

I was quite proud of the fact that, as I finished a run down Elk Park Ridge, my younger and stronger skiing companions had waited only briefly at the bottom of Thunderwolf lift. I had pushed hard to keep up, but felt great.

Until sitting on the lift I felt mild chest pain and said to my ski companions that I might need a little rest. Two minutes later the pain was not so mild, and I wondered if I might need more than a rest. In another minute the pain was severe and I allowed myself the thought that I was having my first heart attack. I soon shared that thought out loud.

As we got off the lift, things moved quickly. A nearby EMT/ski patroller quickly assessed my situation, for which the “first line” medication is aspirin, which he had in chewable form. Proper medical treatment began only minutes after one of my coronary arteries became blocked. I was bundled onto a sled, and it’s a shame that the pain distracted me from enjoying a very fast ride.

Minutes later an electrocardiogram showed some evidence—not obvious—for heart attack. Life is like that. We don’t always get “easy calls.” But professionals combined that borderline objective evidence with my “clinical course,” and a rapid chain of events never slowed down in a situation in which speed was essential to the outcome.

Quick ambulance ride to the Bozeman Health Big Sky Medical Center. They couldn’t helicopter me out because of weather. Portable chest X-ray. Another ECG. Blood drawn for lab work. Consult with cardiology in Bozeman. Aggressive medical treatment given, and then I was in an ambulance to the Bozeman Health Deaconess Regional Medical Center where I was greeted by a cardiologist who already knew my whole medical history, had looked at the chest X-ray and ECG done in Big Sky, and had the results of the lab work. The team needed to perform cardiac catheterization on me had been assembled and was ready to go into “high gear.” A blocked coronary artery was opened and a stent was inserted.

Amazing professionalism, judgement, dedication and teamwork from the top of the hill to the “cath lab”—a chain of many professionals intent on doing their part as well as humanly possible. 

They all succeeded. Cardiac echocardiography the next morning showed normal heart function and I was discharged that afternoon. One week later my new cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic is very impressed with the care I received.

Ed Weber

Cleveland, Ohio