Helicopter Tattoo Reminds Heart Attack Victim of LVH's Lifesaving Care

Patient nearly died while attending the NASCAR race at Pocono one year ago

Lehigh Valley, Pa. (Aug. 2, 2007) – It’s doubtful Patric Hettman will ever forget July 23, 2006, the day he suffered a near-fatal heart attack at Pocono Raceway, awaiting the start of the Pennsylvania 500 NASCAR race. But he wants others to know about his brush with death and life-saving rescue by local EMS and Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH) medical staff. So he had a reminder of the event inked on his arm (see attachment).

On Aug. 5, the East Stroudsburg resident will watch the Pennsylvania 500, hoping to see the race and drivers he missed last year. Besides the tiny metal scaffold in his heart that saved Hettman’s life, he’ll be sporting the tattoo on his left bicep picturing an image of the MedEvac helicopter that flew him to LVH, where one of his blocked heart arteries was opened with a tiny balloon and a stent inserted.

Above the drawing is the phrase, “When minutes mattered,” a variation on the LVH slogan “When Minutes Matter,” and below, the date 7-23-06.

Hettman, who turns 53 on Aug. 10, says the skin-and-ink memento is his way of “thanking everyone involved” with saving his life. He had to be resuscitated a total of four times while in the helicopter, at the LVH-Cedar Crest ER and in the cardiac catheterization laboratory.

“They’re the best,” he says “Anywhere else and any other time and I’d be dead.”

LVH’s MI Alert process was activated to respond to this emergency. This award-winning program races to open blocked heart vessels within 90 minutes to save heart muscle. The American Heart Association set 90 minutes (ER door to insertion of angioplasty balloon) as the benchmark for opening blocked arteries causing a heart attack. LVH is one of a handful of hospitals across the nation that consistently meets and exceeds this goal. The national average is around 120 minutes or more.

Hettman had the tattoo etched at Third Dimension Tattoo in Marshall’s Creek, paying $170 for the design. It took about 90 minutes to complete, Hettman says, and he’s proud to model it as a tribute to the EMS crew and medical personnel who took care of him. “I’m lucky to be alive.”

A premier academic community hospital, Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network includes three hospital facilities – two in Allentown and one in Bethlehem, Pa. – and Lehigh Valley Health Services, providing home health, hospice, pharmaceutical and health management services. In 2007, US News & World Report named Lehigh Valley Hospital one of America’s Best Hospitals for the twelfth straight year. LVHHN’s advanced regional resources include a Level I Trauma Center with added pediatric qualifications, regional Burn Center as well as kidney and pancreas transplant, perinatal/neonatal, cardiac, cancer care, and neurology and complex neurosurgery capabilities. LVHHN hospitals are designated national Magnet hospitals for excellence in nursing. LVH is one of Pennsylvania’s largest teaching hospitals and is a major teaching campus of Penn State's College of Medicine.

ARTICLE TOOLS: