TY  - JOUR
T1  - A systems engineer meets the system
AU  - Gustafson DH
Y1  - 2013/01/16
N1  - 10.1001/jama.2012.176580
JO  - JAMA
SP  - 247
EP  - 248
VL  - 309
IS  - 3
N2  - 
I had always exercised and eaten right and felt good. I hadn't had any warnings (at least none that I recognized) when my heart stopped at my health club in May 2007. But I got lucky: A police detective working out nearby administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation; the club's owner used the defibrillator, which was handy; the ambulance that got the call was only two blocks away. I survived and felt great for a few months. Then I began to deteriorate. My wife Rea and my friend Paul, a physician from Dartmouth, arranged a second opinion for me at a widely respected, more distant hospital, working through Rob, a hospitalist there. I reluctantly went to this hospital in 2008. My pericardium was removed. Four days later I coded again. I had CPR again, followed by 45 minutes of open heart massage. After this I was put on ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), and then a BiVAD (biventricular assist device) was implanted. After 100 days of recuperation, I was healthy enough to be put on the waiting list for a heart transplant. After 33 days on the list, I got a new heart.

SN  - 0098-7484
M3  - doi: 10.1001/jama.2012.176580
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2012.176580
ER  -