Charles Askrin

“This story is about my father Charles Askren. My father was admitted to the VA Hospital in Cincinnati on February 11, 2010 with chest pains. He had been informed several weeks prior that he needed heart bypass surgery, he was very sick. The VA Hospitals in Cincinnati and Cleveland refused to do the surgery because he was such a high risk. He had had a paracardectomy in 1981 and because of this his heart and lungs had fused together with scar tissue and calcium. Dr. Patel was able to successfully separate his heart and lungs and perform the bypass.

Dr. Patel and the other surgeons saved his life. If they had not agreed to do his surgery, my father may not be here today. He was on a respirator for 5-1/2 days and needed a lot of care.

The nursing staff was absolutely wonderful. My father was having some discomfort and complained about something moving in his chest that was out of the ordinary. The nurses took him for a CT scan and discovered that his sternum had separated. He went in for another surgery on March 1, 2010. His entire sternum was open; the wires used to close had pulled through the bone. Dr. Okum was able to close his sternum with 5 Titanium plates. Again, we could have lost my father, because this is very dangerous.

We are so grateful to the doctors and nurses at UC Health University Hospital; my father could not have gotten any better care. The nurses in CVICU even gave my father the nickname of Papa Smurf. My dad is a very strong man and seeing him on the respirator was very hard, but the nurses understood this and were very kind to all of our needs and us as well. They didn’t even get upset when I would call to check on him at 3:00 in the morning on my way to work.

My dad is living proof the University Hospital saves peoples lives.”

~ Deborah E., Amelia

Physicians/Surgeons:

Dr. Smith, Dr. Guitron, Dr. Patel, Dr. Stevenson, Dr. Heubl, Dr. Booth, Dr. Okum and Bob Osterday(physicians assist).

Nurses:
Carla Blue, Jen Popil, Jen Pettibone, Colin Quigley, Amy Plapp, Bethany Schemmel, Erin Eisenbrei, Kerri Santos, Mieta Koob, Julie Nieman, Rachael Derenski, Tiffany Hemphill, Lisa Winston, Deb Morris, Tia Nicely, Racael Callvin, Lotta Hedberg, Bobbie Metz, Ricky Jones and Colleen Schmidt

Robin survived her blocked artery thanks to the quick thinking of her husband, the EMS crews, and the medical teams at University Hospital.

“It was a regular Saturday night. I started feeling ill. After I got sick, I started to feel pressure in my chest. I told my husband, Rick, I was not feeling well. When I started having trouble breathing, he called 911.

Within five minutes, the EMS crew rushed me to the Trauma/Emergency Department at University Hospital. The Emergency Department was already prepped when I got there and before I knew it, rushing me up to the “cath lab”. There, they immediately X-ray’d my heart and determined I needed an angioplasty and a drug-eluding stent put in. Within minutes they were placing the stent in my heart. Afterwards, I was told my artery was 100% blocked when I arrived. In all, it was just seventeen minutes from the time I arrived at the hospital to the placement of the stent. If not for the quick action of my husband, the EMS and firefighters, and the expertise of the University Hospital Emergency and Cardiovascular teams, I would not be here to tell the story. I AM LIVING PROOF.” ~ Robin G., Cincinnati

Alisha, Addison and Cory

Alisha Loudon calls her daughter a miracle. But what is most extraordinary is Loudon’s medical journey to having her daughter. Based on the medical literature, women with her condition only have a 50 percent chance of surviving labor and delivery.

In July 2006, Loudon, now 30, of Clermont County, was diagnosed with a rare vascular condition that caused her to experience spontaneous blood clots in the deep veins in the abdomen and pelvis. The condition was a medical anomaly—she was a young, nonsmoker with no family history of vascular disease and no discernable blood disorders that would lead to blood clots.

She ended up in a community hospital after mild back pain that led to unexplained abdominal pains and swelling in both her legs. The pain was so intense, she could barely walk. After 17 days without answers, she was referred to a UC Health hematologist Carl Siegrist, MD, whom immediately admitted Loudon to the emergency room at UC Health-University Hospital. It was there that Loudon met vascular surgeon Amy Reed, MD, and began a barrage of medical treatment in an attempt to save her life.

Loudon was rushed to the angiography suite where the main vein in the abdomen was opened up with clot-busting medicine, a small suction tubing (catheter) to remove clots and ultimately balloons and stents—all done through small needle punctures in her legs in an attempt to prevent fatal blood clot from breaking away and traveling to her lungs.

“Ms. Loudon has May-Thurner syndrome, an unusual disorder where the constant pulsation of the iliac artery over the top of a large vein in the hip area can cause scarring inside the vein much like a spider’s web,” explains Reed, who is also an associate professor of surgery at the UC College of Medicine and program director of the vascular surgery fellowship and integrated residency. “At some point, flow through the vein will get sluggish enough that the entire system, including the largest vein in the body, can clot off.”

Four surgeries, five permanent stents and a blood transfusion later, Loudon was stable despite the odds.

Loudon was told at the time she had the stents put in that it would be too risky from a medical perspective to have children because of the high likelihood that the stents would be crushed and possibly lead to a life-threatening blood clot for her and possible demise of her fetus. She was put on blood thinners and, fortunately, experienced no further complications.

Although the doctors had cautioned against it, in July 2008 Loudon and her husband decided they wanted to have children and started trying to conceive. She made an appointment to see Arthur Evans, MD, a UC Health maternal-fetal medicine obstetrician and chair of the obstetrics and gynecology department at UC. Evans and his team manage high-risk pregnancies through the University Hospital Perinatal Treatment Center and serve as part of the Fetal Care Center of Cincinnati, a collaboration between UC Health, University Hospital and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

“Both Dr. Evans and Dr. Reed felt very strongly that I should not get pregnant and carry a child, so after much discussion we went to see a surrogacy doctor to determine alternative options,” recalls Loudon.

Four and half weeks later, the couple found out they were expecting.

“Even though my doctors advised against it, I felt like my pregnancy happened for a reason and I wanted to have the baby.”

Under the combined monitoring and care of Evans, his maternal-fetal medicine fellow Ryan Loftin, MD, and Reed, Loudon progressed through her pregnancy without any major problems or complications. She was placed on and the blood thinner Lovenox to prevent life-threatening blood clots and monitored progressively—first monthly, then weekly and eventually twice a week—by Evans and Loftin for signs of distress in her or the baby.

On July 6, 2009, Loudon and her husband Cory welcomed their daughter, Addison, who was delivered by Evans and Loftin at UC Health University Hospital via scheduled cesarean section two weeks early.

“Everything went perfectly and my doctors took such amazing care of me,” says Loudon. “Addison is our one and only little miracle baby. We are so thankful for her.”

After the birth, Loudon underwent tubal ligation to prevent future pregnancies because her body physically wouldn’t be able to take the stress of another pregnancy. A follow-up ultrasound of her venous stents miraculously found that they had not been crushed and remained wide-open.

“Very few patients in the world have been reported to come through a successful pregnancy without crushing these stents,” says Reed. “Alisha and Addison are true miracles. I am so happy they proved us and the odds wrong.”

“I had 100 percent faith in Dr. Evans the moment I met him and I was referred to him by four different people, so this gave me comfort. I feel as if Dr. Reed has been my guardian angel from the very start of my medical treatment in 2006. My daughter and I are both living proof that University Hospital makes miracles happen!”

Dr. Reed- vascular surgeon
Dr. Evans- chairman of high risk OB
Dr. Loftin- high risk OB
Dr. Seigrist- hematologist

Robert Brown, Cincinnati

“It’s a beautiful day near the end of the summer and I am laying on the walk in front of my house bleeding to death.  I hear sirens approaching from the distance. At the beginning of the summer, I elected to have an endovascular AAA repair. After a series of misadventures and six procedures later, I was delivered by EMS squad to University Hospital ER. The first time my femoral artery pseudo aneurysm ruptured I was actually in the hospital. When, about a month later, home alone, I felt the horrifying warmth and gush again, I called 911, identifying myself, my location and condition. Declining to stay on the phone, I decided to lay on my front walk to “wait for the boys”.

When the squad arrived, I waved, as if the guys couldn’t figure out their patient was the guy laying on the walk in a pool of blood. Wavering on the edge of consciousness, I was transported to the ER. I did not regain full awareness until several minutes later in the ER. Before going to emergency surgery to address the immediate emergency, I met Dr. Giglia.

Over the next couple of days we talked. I recall telling him I couldn’t endure another rupture. He gave me an article discussing the procedure he proposed. We agreed to proceed.

 Now, just over a year since, I am still recovering. I have retained my life and my leg. I am grateful for all the people who participated in this adventure. I am especially grateful to Dr. Giglia and have an enduring admiration for his competence, imagination and confidence. ”

- Robert Brown, Cincinnati

Doctors perform surgery on a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm

 Physicians noted: Joe Giglia, Carlos Rosales, Hosam El-Sayed, Michael Ward, et al.

Local 12’s Liz Bonis explains in today’s Medical Edge.

Just a few months ago, Tom Devine arrived here UC’s emergency room at University Hospital.

Tom Devine, Patient: “I was up on the roof cleaning leaves and fell off onto the driveway, onto the concrete, so when I landed I was busted up pretty good, I couldn’t breath.”

Divine says cutting edge medical care here helped save his life, but when it came time to go home, he discovered he had nothing to wear!

“When you leave for the hospital, and there’s emergency vehicles and helicopters, nobody is thinking they are going to cut off all your clothes when you get there, but that’s exactly what they did.”

Luckily, Peggy Sogar stepped in. Sogar heads up a program here, called Fresh Start. Through private donations, sweat suits, socks, underwear and even, sometimes, footwear are provided for patients, when clothing is bloody or needs to be removed.

Peggy Sogar, Fresh Start Director: “It makes a big difference to a patient, and sometimes we’ll, even from a patient, a five dollar bill and a five dollar bill from a patient saying thank you for sending me home with a fresh sweatshirt to go home in, so it makes a big difference for a patient.”

“What a great detail for a hospital to offer something like that. It was a real nice touch and helped out a lot, trust me, helped out a lot.”

If you’d like to know how you can assist in this program, you can call the social work department at University Hospital at 513-584-4314.
 
UC Health University Hospital
Social Work Department
234 Goodman Street
M.L. 0743
Cincinnati, OH 45219

Cincinnati officials want to join mediation talks on the future of University Hospital and some City Council members believe it is considering a lawsuit to protect its interests.

City officials say a 2003 legal settlement obligates the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati to provide safety net services to urban residents and medical residents to city health clinics. The alliance includes University, Fort Hamilton and Jewish hospitals, the Drake Center and West Chester Medical Center.

When Jewish Hospital completes its $180 million sale to Mercy Health Partners March 1, the Health Alliance is likely to dissolve. Supporters say that will isolate University Hospital and put its safety net and medical care missions at risk.

City Solicitor John Curp said “secret negotiations” earlier this week with officials of the two hospitals aren’t advancing the city’s interests in the high-stakes hospital showdown.

“It should be clear that the Health Alliance has contractual obligations to the city and enforcement of those is my main concern,” Curp said. “Failure to consider our legal interests will probably undermine the outcome of those meetings.”

Lawyers for the Health Alliance hospitals met Monday and Tuesday, with neither side reporting significant progress. Jewish and Mercy have insisted they will close their deal March 1.

A lawsuit by either the city or the University of Cincinnati, which represents University Hospital, would bring the conflict out into the open and potentially prolong any resolution, much as it did during a three-year legal battle when Christ and St. Luke hospitals tried to withdraw from the Health Alliance.

City Council members haggled over a potential lawsuit Tuesday, with some apparently urging a lawsuit and others openly opposing it. Curp would not comment on whether he planned a lawsuit.

“We have no business getting involved in this private affair,” Council member Leslie Ghiz said.

In a letter last week to mediator Niki Schwartz, Curp outlined the city’s demands, including:

Operating University Hospital to provide indigent care to Cincinnatians.

Funding the Center for Closing the Health Gap.

Including the Cincinnati Board of Health in a new primary-care network.

Maintaining medical residents in city health clinics.

“Our appeal is to be sure that University Hospital and members of the Health Alliance do not lose sight of their moral obligation to provide access to health care for all of our community,” Curp wrote in the Jan. 6 letter.

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CINCINNATI — Teaching hospitals are on the front lines when it comes to treating the poor and uninsured – and with proposed cuts to Medicare and Medicaid funding – they question how they will be able to adequately perform their mission.

The Senate bill, for example, proposes a 75% cut in disproportionate-share payments – or DSH payments – to safety net hospitals like University Hospital in Cincinnati.

Safety net hospitals receive roughly $10 billion per year in DSH payments from Medicare.

“I don’t think the teaching hospitals are going to get a proportionate drop of 75% in the patients that come through our doors,” said Lee Ann Liska, executive director and senior vice president of University Hospital.

Liska suggests that the many clinics the hospital provides throughout the community might have to be cut to adjust for the loss in funding.

“That’s an area where we lose a lot of money and we may have to seriously look at it,” Liska said.

One solution might be the creation of “Medical Homes.”

A medical home, says Liska, offers more preventative care so patients are less likely to need emergency care at a hospital.

Reported by: Jay Warren
Copyright 2009 The E.W. Scripps Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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CINCINNATI — As America’s Baby Boomers age there is an ever-increasing need for health care workers.

In an effort to meet that demand and to reach out to young people University Hospital in Cincinnati offers their Medical Explorers program.

“From clinical, to research, to education, it gives them a complete array of exposure that they really aren’t going to get anywhere else,” said Lee Ann Liska, Executive Director and Senior Vice President of University Hospital.

The students meet monthly. At their November session they learned CPR.

“What I thought would be a good thing to learn is something they can actually do,” said Mary Clare Hill, M.D.

In addition to learning CPR the students, like Walnut Hills Junior Lydia Prophett, promised to teach their friends and family how to perform CPR as well.

“At first it was challenging just figuring it out but after I got the hang of it it was very simple and it’s good to know that it’s very easy to save a life,” said Prophett.

Prophett and the other Explorers each received a white lab coat to wear while they participate.

“It puts a mental model in their head of being a health care professional,” explained Hill.

Currently in the United States there exists a nurshing shortage and a projected shortage of physicians.

Hill suggests that these high school students will soon become the care-givers of the Baby Boomers.

“We have a lot of people going to be older rather than younger and we’re going to need health care so we’ll need nurses, radiologists, doctors, pharmacists respitory therapists. We’ll need people to take care of us,” said Hill.

Copyright 2009 The E.W. Scripps Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

• Editorial: Find hospital solution
• Fight isn’t solely about money
• University Hospital serves thousands of poor patients
• Teaching remains a core mission
• Cordray will avoid hospitals’ dispute
• Services like nothing else
• Folks to watch
• University Hospital Q&A
• University Hospital timeline
• University Hospital’s latest challenge

You’ve heard the expression “chill-out”… Well, that’s exactly what a cardiology team at University Hospital helped a local patient do recently, and it saved his life!
Local 12’s Liz Bonis explains how in today’s Medical Edge.

When Thomas Hufford first met up with this team of cardiologists…

Thomas Hufford, UC Health Patient: “Apparently, my heart had stopped beating.”

But Doctor Andrew Berger and Doctor Tarek Helmy also discovered…

Dr. Andrew Berger, UC Health: “With his prolonged cardiac arrest, he had heart failure, he had brain failure, he had damage to his kidneys, because they weren’t profused, and he had some damage to his liver, because that was not profused.”

As you might imagine, that put this team in a difficult dilemma, they needed his body to sort of start restoring it’s function, to perform life-saving heart surgery. So, Hufford had to chill out, literally.

“This is the blanket that is connected to the cold saline, and it’s placed on the patient…”

A blanket of salt water was used to give Hufford hypothermic therapy. It brought his body temperature down to 75 degrees, which slows damage, and sure enough…

“After 24 hours, we saw significant improvement with his heart function and with his brain function.”

Not only did that allow for heart surgery, it also left both Hufford and his team sort of in awe.

“I actually help facilitate the body to recover and the man upstairs took care of the rest.”

What’s more amazing… Hufford has had no residual damage.

“You got some more things to do, apparently. Do you know what those are? No, he’ll let me know.”

From the battlefield to a farmer’s field, night vision goggles are now in the hands of Air Care at University Hospital.

University Hospital took 9News on a flight to show the goggles in action on Wednesday.

“These are the latest generation night vision goggles. They started back probably in the Vietnam era when “tankers” used them basically strapping them on their face,” said Air Care pilot Paul Boland through the ‘com’ system.

A former special operations pilot, Boland is no stranger to the goggles.

“It allows us to see obstacles and go in and out of unprepared landing zones and be able to see obstacles and other things that would be a hazard to us,” said Boland.

Night vision technology magnifies existing light to produce a bright green image that allows the Air Care crew to see almost as though it were during the day.

In addition to Boland, we flew with Air Care’s medical director Bill Hinkley, MD and flight nurse Susan Kuerze.

“We try to take the level one trauma center, heart center, stroke center, pediatric center out to the patient,” said Hinkley explaining Air Care’s mission.

Air Care at University Hospital has flown 28,000 flight missions for 25 years.

“Those things that for so many years we had some difficulty seeing are now very easily seen,” continued Hinkley.

Both Hinkley and Kuerze also use night vision to assist Boland in detecting potential hazards.

“You get to help people and fly around the city,” said Kuerze. “What could be better?”

Kuerze was in nursing school when she decided she wanted to be a flight nurse.

“My father was flown to University Hospital and I thought that was a pretty cool thing and I wanted to do that when I grew up,” Kuerze said with a smile.

“The speed across the ground is about 150 mph,” explained Boland. “It takes us from the time that they call us we get off the ground in about six minutes. So, we can be within anything close-in within literally five to 10 minutes.”

The goggles cost University Hospital $15,000 per pair.

9News is told they’ve already saved a crew from a potential accident.  While responding to a scene, a church parking lot was identified by people on the ground as a safe place to land.  As the helicopter descended the pilot noticed with the help of the goggles a very thin wire above the lot that went unseen by those on the ground.

Copyright 2009 The E.W. Scripps Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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