Lifesaving Teamwork

The staff is the heart of the hospital

It was a happy occasion for Mary and Dan Jozwiak of Owosso visiting Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital for the first time. They wanted to see where their daughter would soon give birth.

But lunch at Henry’s suddenly became a life-threatening situation when Mary suffered sudden cardiac arrest in the café.

The couple and their family, including their new granddaughter, returned to Henry Ford West Bloomfield recently to share their story and thank the many members of the staff who had ensured a happy ending to the ordeal.

Mary slumped over in her chair in the café, and her husband called for assistance. A nurse alert was called, which swiftly became a code blue, and staff began CPR.

Quick-working Emergency Department staff used a defibrillator to start Mary’s heart, and she was taken to Emergency, and then the cath lab, where an emergency heart catheterization was performed.

Mary was eventually transferred to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, where she received an S-ICD defibrillator.

“We had almost stopped for lunch at a restaurant down the street,” Dan told the team. “She wouldn’t be here to see her granddaughter if not for you.”

One of Mary’s ICU nurses remembered that the couple never got to have their lunch in Henry’s. He requested that they have gift cards to return for lunch, and CEO Lynn Torossian was happy to present them to the couple at the emotional reunion with the people who had saved Mary’s life.