Dear Friends,
This March 26th marks the 40th anniversary of my father’s death. Medical director of a Cardiac Intensive Care Unit in a large Connecticut teaching hospital, he died, ironically, from a heart attack because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Just 44 years old at the time, he was vacationing in the Bahamas and playing golf when he was stricken. Back then there were very few hospitals in the United States that had lifesaving cardiovascular services, never mind the Caribbean Islands. The skills and technology he needed simply weren’t developed yet for that kind of an emergency situation.
Today, should a golfer on one of our local courses suffer a heart attack, the scenario would be dramatically different — and so would the outcome. In all probability, someone would dial 911 using a cell phone, alert the golf course personnel who may well have portable defibrillators available to shock the victim’s heart should it stop, and direct the already-dispatched mobile intensive care personnel to his stricken colleague. Once having arrived at Hunterdon Medical Center, he would immediately receive life-saving treatment — all amounting to less than 75 minutes — from Emergency Room to inserting the device that opens his clogged artery. In fact, Hunterdon Medical Center’s Heart Attack Response Team responds 45 minutes faster than the national average for the same procedure. And saving time means saving lives.
In 1966, when our small community hospital was barely into its teenage years, cardiovascular disease was the leading cause of death in Hunterdon County. It still is 40 years later. But the good news is the recent announcement that there is a 27% greater chance of survival at Hunterdon Medical Center once a patient enters our doors when comparing the statistics of 5,000 hospitals nationwide. Being a betting man, my dad would have taken those odds. More important, being a physician fiercely committed to his profession and his patients, he would have been proud to be in the company of the dedicated men and women who represent the medical and nursing professions of the Hunterdon Medical Center for the extraordinary work they do every day.
And so am I.
Robert P. Wise
President and CEO
Hunterdon Healthcare System
