Medical City Healthcare | Take Care | Fall 2019

Ed was enjoying his weekly golf game with friends when he felt a sharp pain. “I thought that I just had a gas bubble in my chest,” Ed said. “I had no idea that I was having a heart at- tack. I guess then all heck broke loose.” A golfing buddy drove him to the nearby VA clinic, where staff called paramedics to take him to Medical City Denton . As the only Cycle V Accredited Chest Pain Center in Denton, no other hospital is better prepared in a cardiac emergency. They didn’t give up Ed was three feet from the cardiac cath lab table when he died the first time. He was in ventricular SHOCKING RECOVERY ED BURKETT, OF DENTON, HAS ALREADY DIED 44 TIMES. fibrillation (VFib) arrest—a condition in which the heart quivers instead of pumping blood. Without quick intervention, Ed had virtually no chance for survival. The Medical City Denton heart team used every tool and skill to help save Ed’s life. He was given CPR, intubation, ventilation, a pacemaker, a defibrillator, a stent, a left ventricular assist device and therapeutic hypothermia. With each new procedure, Ed’s heart was shocked back to normal rhythm. During the one- hour emergency, it happened 44 times. “My chances of survival were low,” Ed said. “Many have called me a miracle. But God’s got a purpose for me.” Heart care 8