On August 28, 2023, Enrique Medina saw his primary care doctor for a routine appointment. During the physical exam, his doctor noticed that Medina had a heart murmur and scheduled an ultrasound of his heart. The results were worrying: Medina had 2 blocked arteries and a faulty heart valve. Although Medina wasn’t experiencing any symptoms and was generally healthy, his doctor told Medina he would need to have surgery soon.
A series of life-threatening events
Medina started getting the necessary tests completed before his upcoming heart surgery. But just 7 days after his appointment, Medina started experiencing concerning symptoms. He was having trouble breathing, and although he tried to ignore it, his symptoms got worse: “I felt like I was drowning,” said Medina, whose wife, Alma, rushed him to Kaiser Permanente Ontario Medical Center. In the emergency department, Medina was placed on a breathing machine before being moved to Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center.
On September 7, just over a week after Medina’s primary care visit, he underwent a high-risk surgery to replace his faulty heart valve and bypass the blockages in 2 arteries. Tikva Krindle, RN, happened to be walking by the intensive care unit when she noticed Medina was showing some concerning signs. His blood pressure was falling, and he was bleeding through his chest tube.
“His number was going lower and lower, meaning he was losing his pulse and about to code,” said Krindle. “I immediately called our intensivist to come to his bedside as Enrique went into cardiac arrest.”
Medina was in cardiac arrest for almost 2 minutes. Fortunately, the team resuscitated him, and “he gave a thumbs-up as he was being rolled back into surgery,” said Krindle.
