How I Met Your Mother

Time: Evening, July 1st, 1989

Place: ICU at La Porte Hospital, La Porte, Indiana

I had just finished my final year of training in interventional cardiology in Michigan. I was eager to start my first job as an interventional cardiologist in La Porte, Indiana.

July 1st was my first day on the job, in a new town and a new hospital. Around 7 pm, I got a patient with ST-elevation myocardial infarction and started thrombolytic therapy. Being at a center that did not have percutaneous coronary intervention capability, the standard of care, back then, was to give thrombolytic therapy. The patient did not seem to reperfuse with the thrombolytic therapy and in fact, went into pulmonary edema. I had to intubate him, sedate him, and put him on a ventilator. Later, his blood pressure started to drop. I turned to the nurse taking care of the patient with me and asked, “Do you have a balloon pump? I may have to put one in on this patient.” Her name was Sue Cox. She answered, “Yes, the balloon pump machine and the kit are in the corner in the ICU.” I went to examine the equipment and saw it was the same brand of device I trained in and the exact kit that I was familiar with. I told the nurse, “We are going to put a balloon pump in, and I need you to gown up so you can be my assistant.” She asked, “Do you know what you are doing?” “Yes,” was my answer. She asked, “Would you tell me, step by step, what I am supposed to do?” I said yes, I would.