Time is of the essence during a medical emergency

In most medical emergencies, time is of the essence. That’s especially true during a heart attack or stroke.

Starting treatment quickly can mean the difference between life and death, and it all starts with the diagnosis.

Most people recognize the signs of stroke, including weakness on one side of the body and slurred speech. That’s what one woman experienced when she was rushed to NCH, but it turns out she wasn’t having a stroke. It was much worse.

Cynthia Pollock didn’t see it coming. She and her husband, Rich, were beginning their day.

“And she started leaning over up against me. I said, ‘Are you all right?’ And she said, ‘No.’ So then I called 911,” Rich said.

An ambulance brought them to NCH on the presumption that Cynthia was having a stroke.

“First of all, she was losing consciousness. She was also having difficulty moving one arm and one leg. She was having difficulty speaking,” said Dr. Robert Pascotto, cardiothoracic surgeon at NCH.

However, CT scans showed it was another issue altogether.

The final diagnosis showed an aortic dissection, which, simply put, is a tear inside her heart.

In Cynthia’s situation, that dissection, or the splitting of the walls of the aorta, went up into the arch and then out into the carotid artery.

Often deadly, the tear sends blood flowing in ways it shouldn’t.

“It can go into the aortic valve that separates the heart from the rest of the body, and that is lethal. It can go into the coronary arteries, the arteries that supply the heart muscle, can cause a heart attack, and that can also be fatal, and then it can also go up into the brain and cause these stroke-like symptoms,” Pascotto said.

Cynthia underwent a major and complex surgery.

“We have to do something in a dissection that’s fairly unique, and that’s when you have to cool the body down, very, very cold, so that you can repair the part of the aorta that has those blood vessels going up to the brain,” Pascotto said.

They replaced a heart valve and rebuilt part of her artery. Seeing her today, you might never guess what she went through.

“It’s really a fairly remarkable recovery,” Pascotto said.

Less than a month later, she and Rich are enjoying her new lease on life.

There are no warning signs for something like this, but smoking and high blood pressure are risk factors.

Many times, a dissection is brought on by a small aneurysm in the heart.