The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Technology, teamwork fix a broken heart — literally
Rita Hannafin died for four minutes in July 2021. When her heart stopped, personnel at St. Vincent’s Medical Center rushed to administer CPR and other life-saving measures.
“The last thing I remember is looking up at my husband and asking why this was happening,” Hannafin said. “I asked if I was going to die, then I blacked out. I was gone. I coded.”
Hannafin had arrived at the emergency room for vomiting. While there, she had what doctors call a stress-induced cardiomyopathy — broken heart syndrome.
“What happens is the heart isn’t contracting well, and, if it’s severe enough, it can cause arrythmias and shock, but it almost always recovers if the patient survives the initial event,” said Dr. Jeffrey Berman, chair of St. Vincent’s Department of Cardiology.
In Hannafin’s case, in order to survive, she needed to be put on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO. This technology takes over the function of the heart and the lungs, allowing them to rest while the body receives the blood and oxygen it needs to survive.
“She was on a ventilator, as well, but she could not get enough oxygen. With ECMO, there is a tube inserted in the central vein that takes blood out of the body. The blood is pumped through an oxygenator where oxygen is added and then it’s returned to the body,” Berman said. “We use it for patients in cardiogenic shock or in pulmonary distress. ECMO takes over for the heart and the lungs and allows them a
chance to recover.”
Once on ECMO, St. Vincent’s transferred Hannafin to their partner, Hartford Hospital, through an efficient, on-the-ground system that saves lives.
“If we didn’t have the system in place, there is no way Rita would have survived,” Berman said. “They have a whole team that comes down from Hartford called ‘ECMO to-go.’ We manage it while she’s at St. Vincent’s, then the Hartford team comes by helicopter, transports the patient on ECMO, and continues to manage it up there.”
Here’s how it works: When a patient needs ECMO, St. Vincent’s Medical Center can start it immediately then prepare them for transport to Hartford Hospital’s intensive care unit. The combined team is 20 people, with cardiology, intensive care, the cardiac catheterization lab, anesthesiology and cardiac surgery, doctors, nurses, and other personnel all working together.
“ECMO is a great example of something we
did not have before we became part of Hartford HealthCare. It increases our capabilities in very powerful and important ways,” Berman said.
The cause of broken heart syndrome is unknown, but it’s believed to be some combination of neurological and stress hormones causing the arteries to clamp down and stop the apex of the heart from working, according to Berman. He estimates about 2 percent of the patients who come in expecting a heart attack diagnosis have broken heart syndrome.
While the stay itself was traumatic to Hannafin, she felt supported and cared for throughout.
“I was out of it in the ICU, but my daughters and husband couldn’t say enough about how wonderful the staff was. They told me that a nurse
would be there, braiding my hair, talking to me, and I couldn’t hear, I was on the machine. I was just trying to find my way,” she said.
The doctors and nurses helped her through both physically and mentally.
“A doctor said, ‘You’re going to get better, and you’re going to get out of here,’ and I really needed to hear that,” Hannafin said. “At that point I couldn’t walk — I had lost 15 pounds; I was terrified.”
It’s been a year and a half since Hannafin was discharged, and her recovery journey continues.
“I’ve learned so much from this experience,” she said. “I’ve learned that I have little control over my life. I was in this place at that moment and now I’m here, and every day I am grateful.”
Hannafin spent a week learning to walk
again through cardiac rehabilitation in the hospital, then through outpatient cardiac care in the following months.
“This experience has changed me. I feel like I’ve come back through the help of the doctors and nurses. I am able to zoom out and see a bigger picture,” she said. “In the hospital I was in a two-person room, and my bed was by a picture window. My eyes would open every morning, and I would see the sun or clouds and be so incredibly grateful. Even now every morning when I open my eyes, I say, ‘Thank you, God. I’m here.’”
Hannafin is an artist and has turned her experience into art, both to process it herself and share it with others. She just completed an opening at City Gallery in New Haven, part of which was a five-piece
series called “HeartBeats.”
Her Hartford HealthCare family has a place forever in her stillbeating heart.
“I asked to be taken through the ICU before I left. I’ll never forget, they all started clapping,” Hannafin said. “I got to meet all these amazing people who had taken care of me. I want this to be a thank you somehow. I didn’t know how to thank them, so I’d like to thank them now.”
This is just one example of how Hartford HealthCare St. Vincent’s Medical Center is bringing more specialists and providers to the community. Tune into Hartford HealthCare St. Vincent’s Medical Center’s Facebook Live discussion, where you can ask questions, on Thursday, Feb. 23, at noon. For more information, visit hartfordhealthcare.org/heart or call 833-444-0014.