The last person to figure out that Peter Zellmer was having a heart attack was Peter Zellmer.
"I was the healthiest I’d been in a long time," he remembered of the fateful day in July 2004.  "I’d been diagnosed with diabetes that April and I’d watched my diet and been exercising more than I ever had in my life."

Zellmer lives in Greendale but works at a Milwaukee-area print shop, a place that tends to be hot during the summer. "It was about 10:30 a.m. when I started to feel a little hotter than normal," he says. "I was a little dizzy, so I went into a room that had air conditioning and sat down."
His supervisor happened to check in on him. "I told him while I didn’t feel well, I probably just needed something to eat," Zellmer remembers. "The next thing I knew, he had made a phone call and the paramedics had arrived."

As they prepared to transport Zellmer for medical care, they asked him which hospital he wanted to go to. His first choice was too far away. "They took me to The Wisconsin Heart Hospital, which happened to be only three minutes from work," he says. "In hindsight, I’m very glad they made that decision."

Time was of the essence in saving Zellmer’s life. Despite the absence of classic symptoms, he was having a full-blown heart attack.

"Within thirty-two minutes of the onset of symptoms, Peter was in surgery," says Dr. Krishna Kumar, a cardiovascular consultant and cardiac and peripheral vascular interventionalist at The Wisconsin Heart Hospital. "Time is of the essence when heart muscle is concerned."
Like emergency medicine, cardiac care has its "golden hour." "Ideally, we need to get in and address the problem within the first sixty minutes," says Kumar. "The less heart muscle that is damaged, the better the prognosis."

Initial tests showed that Zellmer had a one hundred percent blockage in one artery. "They took me across the hall and I had an angioplasty," he remembers. "I never was really out or unconscious; I didn’t feel any pain from the procedure."

According to Kumar, the first twenty-four hours after a heart attack are a critical time as well. "We monitor our patients in Intensive Care," he says.

"Complications can arise during the first few hours, including lethal arrhythmias and signs of congestive heart failure. Significant heart damage can occur during this time period if these symptoms are not addressed."

Zellmer’s strongest memory of this period was the fact that his family soon surrounded him. "My relatives started trickling in," he says. "When my sister showed up, that’s when I realized how serious the situation was."

He adds that his initial recovery was comfortable. "I was able to return right to my room, which was nice," he says. "To do the angioplasty, they went in through my groin area and worked their way up to my heart."

During that period, Zellmer was also required to stay on his back. "That was a little hard for me because I don’t normally sleep that way," he admits. "But that was a minor issue compared to what could have happened."

He adds that the only real discomfort he felt at the conclusion of his initial recovery period was not heart related. "The most uncomfortable thing I experienced was the removal of the sheath from my femoral artery," he says.

The heart attack actually resulted in two angioplasties for Zellmer. The first was to insert a stent in the severely blocked artery. "I also returned two weeks later for a second angioplasty because they found a second blockage in one of the marginal branches," he says.

Now more than a year after his successful surgeries, Zellmer is thankful for the turn of events. "I now know how important time is when you’re having a heart attack," he says. "Without a doubt, everything occurred the way it should have and I was taken to the right facility and had the best care I could have obtained. I feel good; I feel healthy."

Story by Laurie Arendt | September 2005 / M Magazine - M 69