Midland man has much to be thankful for – Midland Daily News

DavidSczepanski was grateful he was able to be transferred to Midlandto be where his caregivers live.(Photo provided)

DavidSczepanski was grateful he was able to be transferred to Midlandto be where his caregivers live.(Photo provided)

DavidSczepanski was grateful he was able to be transferred to Midlandto be where his caregivers live.(Photo provided)

DavidSczepanski was grateful he was able to be transferred to Midlandto be where his caregivers live.(Photo provided)

Midland man has much to be thankful for

David Sczepanski and his entire family have a ton to be thankful for as Thanksgiving rolls around. In August, he narrowly missed celebrating Thanksgiving ever again.

Sczepanski had driven to White River, Canada, to meet up with several friends to begin their annual bear bow-hunting trip. After he checked into a motel, he went to unload his car and meet his friends. Suddenly, he began to feel chest pains and hollered to his friends he was having a heart attack. He fell to the ground, hitting his head on a wall. Sczepanski's last memory of the event was his initial arrival in Canada.

Friends ran to the motel restaurant to call for an ambulance. White River is a small town where volunteers man the ambulance. Sczepanski was told later told the ambulance was rocking as the crew administered cardio pulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation multiple times. Sczepanskis longtime friend, a bait-shop owner, was on-call as one of the volunteer responders and told the rest of the crew that they were not going to lose Dave on his watch. Interestingly, Sczepanski is the first patient that crew has had who survived a cardiac arrest while being transported to a medical facility.

The closest medical center was a womans clinic one hour away in Wu Wu. On the trip to the clinic, the responders worked on his heart for an hour, switching between CPR and the use of the defibrillator. The scrape on Sczepanski's head, that he suffered when he fell against the wall early in the scenario, was the best sign that his heart was still working, because it continued to bleed through the CPR efforts.

The womens clinic put Sczepanski on a ventilator, but since these offices closed at 5 p.m., he was transported via helicopter to Sault St. Marie, Ontario. From there, arrangements were made to send him to Petoskey for a transfer to the United States.

Meanwhile, Sczepanski's family was driving to meet him in Canada, but got a call and turned around to head back to Petoskey.

When I got to Petoskey, they assumed I had suffered a fatal heart event, my ribs were broken and the cartilage between my ribs had been destroyed because of the continuous CPR. When my family arrived, they were told I had zero chances of surviving this event, Sczepanski said.

"The doctors told my family that they would take me off life support the next morning, but what a surprise they got," he continued. After taking me off life support, the nurse told me what the date was, and my first response was that I missed the first day of bear bow hunting."

Not only could Sczepanski breathe on his own, but he understood the date and remembered what he had planned to be doing on that date. When the family asked the doctor how this could happen, he just pointed up and said there are always miracles.

Tests revealed Sczepanski had not had a heart attack and his arteries were in great shape. He did indeed have issues with his hearts electrical system. The event had been precipitated by dehydration and low potassium. And, tests discovered he had been born with a heart arrhythmia. Doctors in Petoskey suggested he go to Ann Arbor for a cardiac MRI and then return to Petoskey for a defibrillator or AICD.

Because of the level of Sczepanskis damages and issues, and potential long recovery, doctors in Petoskey told Sczepanki and his family that he needed to be transferred to the Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor or Beaumont Hospitals for further treatment. They were told that only those centers could do a cardiac MRI. His family asked about Midland, but they were told the other hospitals were preferred.

Thankfully, some of the family had connections with the Midland hospital and Dr. Robert Jones, director of Cardiac Surgery at MidMichigan. They contacted Jones and he helped make all the arrangements for Sczepanski to be transferred to Midland where there was in fact a cardiac MRI and experts who could read it. The family was incredibly thankful that Sczepanski could be cared for in his hometown, where his caregivers lived.

Jones helped greatly by working to control Sczepanskis pain caused by the physical trauma he received during CPR. He also put him in touch with Dr. Nilofar Islam, one of the best electrophysiologists in the state, who successfully implanted a defibrillator.

Midland turned out to be a great facility for Sczepanski to begin recovery and ultimately get home. He continues with MidMichigan Rehabilitation to repair the cartilage and broken ribs he suffered from the life-saving CPR, along with the 20 pounds of muscle he lost, and a left arm that has little strength, after all hes been through.

Sczepanski admitted he has been overwhelmed with support from his family and friends and thankful for Three Rivers Corporation, where hes worked for more than 30 years. He made it very clear hes anxious to get back to work.

Go here to see the original:

Midland man has much to be thankful for - Midland Daily News