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Shelly Ranciglio Did
Shelley Ranciglio, a medical assistant for Metro Heart Group, works out on the elliptical machine at St. Anthony’s Fitness Center. After having a heart attack at age 38, Ranciglio has made several lifestyle changes to improve her heart health.
It was the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and Shelley Ranciglio was enjoying a day at her home in High Ridge, watching movies with her son, Brendan, 10. Around 5 p.m., she decided to take a shower before starting to prepare their dinner. Ranciglio never cooked that night.
“I had just come out of the shower, when the left side of my chest started hurting like someone was pushing a fist into my chest,” Ranciglio said. “I’d had pleurisy in the past – an inflammation of the lining of the lungs – and, at first, I thought that’s what it was.”
But, within a half hour, Ranciglio was sweating profusely and experiencing severe pain that traveled from the right to the left side of her jaw and down into her left arm. She was having a heart attack. She was 38 years old.
“What they say about denial is true,” Ranciglio said. “I work for cardiologists and I still said, ‘This can’t be a heart attack.’ I called my best friend, who was up the street, visiting her family, and asked her to come get my son. Then I called an ambulance to come get me.”
Ranciglio, who works as a medical assistant at Metro Heart Group, had been trained only the month before to read EKG results. In the ambulance on her way to St. Anthony’s Medical Center, she read her own results – and knew they weren’t good.
“That’s when I got really scared and a little teary,” Ranciglio said. “But, once we reached the hospital, within a half hour I was in the Cardiac Cath Lab having an angioplasty to open my blocked artery.”
St. Anthony’s Medical Center is the first hospital in Missouri to receive accreditation as a Chest Pain Center. A key part of that designation is effective communication and integration between the Emergency Department and the local Emergency Medical Service (EMS). Last spring St. Anthony’s purchased 16 pre-hospital defibrillators for five EMS control agencies in its service area, giving EMS personnel the capability to run EKGs in the field and transmit the results directly to St. Anthony’s Cardiology Department. If needed, a Cardiac Catheterization room is staffed and ready to perform any necessary procedure as soon as the patient arrives.
The amount of time that elapses from the onset of symptoms to treatment to correct the problem makes all the difference. St. Anthony’s has the best ‘door-to-balloon’ time – measured from the time the patient comes through the door in the Emergency Department to the time we’re opening their coronary artery – of any hospital in the area. Because Shelley received treatment so quickly, she has a good prognosis.
Ranciglio said the experience was a wake-up call to her to change her lifestyle. “I have no family history of heart problems, but I’ve been a heavy smoker since I was 15,” she said. “I had never exercised – never even set foot on a treadmill – before I went to St. Anthony’s Cardiac Rehab. Since Jan. 1, I’ve quit smoking and I’ve joined the hospital’s Fitness Center, where I work out two to three times each week. My diet was never too bad, but I’ve become more aware now of what I put in my mouth.”
It is estimated that smoking increases your risk for heart disease by 25 to 50 percent. Quitting smoking, controlling your blood pressure and cholesterol and adopting a lifestyle that includes exercise and a healthy diet are the biggest factors for reducing your risk of heart disease. Eliminating those risk factors is important to prevent a heart attack and becomes even more important once you’ve had a coronary event.
Ranciglio calls her first month “post heart attack” the worst month of her life. “I was frightened,” she said. “I was afraid that if I went to sleep I wouldn’t wake up. And I was depressed. I just sat at home and thought about having a heart attack in my 30s. But now it’s different – I’ve learned a lot from my experience. I had to make the decision to change my life and I feel better for it.”
For information or a physician referral, please call 800-554-9550 or visit our online physician referral.
At St. Anthony's, our vision is to be the area's premier health care organization — and your first choice for health care services.