Alive Today Thanks to SRHS's ED
In 2007, Jean Griffith was sitting at her table reading the newspaper. The next thing she knew, she was face down on the table with intense pain across her back. Little did she know, she was fighting for her life in a race against time.
In fact, Griffith almost didn’t make it to the Emergency Department at Samaritan Hospital. Once EMS personnel arrived, the pain wasn’t as intense and she questioned whether she needed further care. EMS personnel told her that if her pain was bad enough that she needed to call a squad, she should probably be checked out.
Griffith’s condition remained a mystery during her initial assessment at the Emergency Department. Both her blood pressure and pulse were normal, but Dr. Albert Miller was concerned that she was still having pain. As a result, he ordered a CAT scan.
“Dr. Miller came back in with my results and said ‘we need to get you somewhere right away,’” Griffith explained. She had an aortic dissection, where the inner layer of the aortic wall tears and separates from the next layer of the aorta.
Her life-threatening condition was further complicated by the fact that the hospitals in Akron and Columbus were full and weren’t accepting more patients. That left Cleveland Clinic, but with Life Flight grounded, transportation became an issue.
Griffith said that Cleveland Clinic wanted to send a squad to Ashland with a cardiologist who would ride with her back to Cleveland. Griffith’s daughters argued that she could get to Cleveland Clinic in half the time if an Ashland squad transported her immediately, which is what they did.
The surgeon was ready for Griffith when she arrived at Cleveland Clinic. According to Griffith, the surgeons told her daughters that “very few small emergency departments would have recognized the problem.”
Now, at 83 years old, Griffith continues her active life, which includes volunteering in the community. She sees a cardiologist once a year to follow-up on her aortic dissection, but has had no limitations as a result of it. “Dr. Miller sure knew what he was doing,” a grateful Griffith said.
