Quick response saves Groton woman’s life
The number 38 now has a magical meaning for Arlys Kluess – that’s how many minutes it took from the time she called 911 after realizing the pain she felt in her chest could be a heart attack to completion of heart repairs in Avera St. Luke’s Cardiac Cath Lab.
Because of the quick response, the Groton woman suffered no heart damage after a severe heart attack. It took her just three minutes to get to the hospital via ambulance from downtown Aberdeen on March 3, after what she thought was a bad case of heartburn kept getting worse and she called for help. Kluess, who has been a nurse in Aberdeen for more than 30 years, said “everyone was just flying” after she got to the hospital where she works. “When I got to the Emergency Room, it was just amazing. Every nurse and every paramedic was in the room.”
Kluess was examined and sent on to the Cardiac Cath Lab, where she had a cardiac stent put in to repair a blockage. She believes if Avera St. Luke’s and interventional cardiologists Lou Kumar, MD, and Dr. Gupta, weren’t available right here in Aberdeen, she wouldn’t be here today. “We have really good doctors in Aberdeen, and I’m alive today because of them.” If her heart attack would have happened a year earlier, she would probably have been flown to Sioux Falls for help because Aberdeen didn’t yet have the cardiology specialists we have today.
A quick response is crucial when a person has a heart attack. “We have a saying in cardiology. We say time is muscle,” said Dr. Gupta. “The longer you wait, the more muscle dies.” Getting treated in Aberdeen proved to be a lifesaver for Kluess.
“People don’t realize the type of health care we have right here in Aberdeen. We have it right here in Aberdeen,” Kluess stressed. “To come back from a major heart attack and not have any damage, is a miracle.”
“Being able to take care of patients here at home is a huge benefit,” said Dr. Gupta. “We as physicians touch individual lives on such a personal basis. We feel privileged to be able to be allowed to help patients and to be able to provide them health care.”
Doctors told Kluess later that she is not at higher risk for future heart attacks. Kluess, a very energetic, active, trim 56-year-old at the time of her heart attack, was amazed this could happen to her. “If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone,” she said. “I said to the cardiologist afterwards that you saved my life. It’s just a miracle. The good Lord isn’t ready for me yet.”
Kluess spent just a few days in the hospital after her March 3 heart attack and still made her trip to Jamaica for her nephew’s wedding, leaving March 9. She was soon back to work on Third Medical at Avera St. Luke’s, now feeling a special bond with the heart patients she helps. “You don’t realize how many lives you touch and how many people appreciate you and all the things you take for granted until something like this happens to you.”
