Taylor's Story - "I wouldn't be here if I hadn't gone to HCA Florida Putnam Hospital"

Taylor Douglas hadn’t been feeling right for about a week. The retired Putnam County Sheriff has spent the last 18 years in real estate and is always on the go, but he hadn’t had any energy lately. On Aug. 20, as he was leaving a Kiwanis Club meeting, he couldn’t catch his breath. In the parking lot, he called HCA Florida Putnam Hospital’s Richard Young Feibelman, MD, a pulmonary and critical care doctor. Dr. Feibelman’s wife, a nurse who manages the practice, told him to come in right away.

Dr. Feibelman examined Taylor and was immediately concerned.

“He did not look good,” Dr. Feibelman said. “Fast heart rate and low oxygen saturation, indicating either cardiac disease or a pulmonary embolism. He had no history of cardiac disease, and an embolism is often fatal. Patients frequently don’t make it to the hospital.”

Douglas was rushed to the emergency room. An emergency room physician immediately ordered a CT scan, which showed large clots in both lungs, causing a significant strain on the heart.

“In that situation, we have to move pretty quickly to prevent serious problems, including death,” said Dr. Feibelman. “It was life threatening.”

Cardiologist Ziad Alnapki, MD, used a newer technology, a device that performs a procedure called a catheter thrombectomy, to remove the clots. Dr. Feibelman says the procedure, which involves a tube going up through a vein in the leg to the vessels in the lungs and essentially vacuuming out the clots, is showing good outcomes when done expeditiously.

“They went into high gear,” said Douglas, who was in the intensive care unit for two days and is deeply grateful to the team who saved his life. “The doctors, all the hospital staff, the cath lab nurses were very informative to me – what the procedure would be like, what the machine was they would be using. The folks in ICU were just fantastic, the nurses were very attentive, not only to me but to my family, keeping them up to date.”    

“Thank God he called,” said Dr. Feibelman. “If he had delayed, he probably would not have survived the event.”

Dr. Feibelman notes having a hospital with an experienced, caring team and leading-edge technology and treatment close to home made all the difference.

“It saves lives, and a lot of them, in this community – having the facility and the expertise and the ability to have the right equipment on site or get it quickly,” he said. “We’re serious about what we’re doing at HCA Florida Putnam Hospital. We have really good, talented doctors. The teamwork that we have to save lives makes me proud.”

“Everything lined up,” said Douglas. “I couldn’t have gone to another hospital and had anything close to the care I received and the team of medical people who helped me through this thing. We’re so fortunate to have them in our community. I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t gone to HCA Florida Putnam Hospital.”