10 ◆ November 2019 ◆ Springfi eld Business Journal

MEDICAL NEWS

The Prairie Heart Institute at HSHS St. John’s Hospital in Springfield is the first hospital in the U.S. and second world-wide to use new, investigational medical technology to treat dangerously fast heart rhythms. As part of the worldwide Extra-vascular Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (EV ICD) Pivotal Study, John Scherschel, MD, a Prairie cardiologist, implanted the novel EV ICD system in a patient who is at risk of sudden cardiac arrest.

The investigational EV ICD system from Medtronic is de-signed to deliver lifesaving defibrillation and pacing therapy from an implanted device via a thin wire (called a lead) placed outside the heart and veins. In traditional, transvenous implant-ed defibrillator systems, the lead is threaded through the veins and into the heart.

“This new approach to delivering lifesaving ICD therapy in a full-featured device, but without the risks associated with leads

inside the veins and heart, is very appealing,” said Scherschel. “I am pleased to participate in this clinical study and offer this innovative investigational technology to local patients.”

Bobby Dokey was 16 years old when he was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and his father died of heart disease at 42. The elective procedure gives the 30-year-old husband and father from New Berlin peace of mind knowing he is protected.

“I knew my condition resulted in abnormally thick heart muscle, which makes it harder to pump blood. It was on my mind every day,” Dokey said. “I don’t feel as anxious knowing I now have something in place to protect me.”

ICDs have been saving lives for more than 30 years by delivering a lifesaving shock or painless pacing therapy to stop dangerously fast heart rhythms that can lead to sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), an abrupt loss of heart function. Most

SCA episodes are caused by the rapid and/or chaotic activity of the heart known as ventricular tachycardia (VT) or ventricular fibrillation (VF). SCA kills more than 350,000 people each year in the United States.

The EV ICD pivotal study is a prospective, multicenter, sin-gle-arm, non-randomized, pre-market clinical study evaluating the new technology in up to 400 patients at up to 60 hospitals in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

A week after his surgery, Dokey started a new job at HSHS St. John’s Hospital.

“The device worked for me three times during testing. I have no fear that it won’t do its job,” Dokey said. Now he can do his job, as well.

Prairie is currently seeking additional patients to participate in the study. ◆

Memorial Medical Center will host a free com-munity event to inform and educate people about lung cancer on Thursday, Nov. 14, at the Memorial Center for Learning and Innovation located at 228 W. Miller St.

The program, “Shine a Light on Lung Can-cer,” begins at 6 p.m. in room 2A on the MC-LI’s second floor. The two-hour program will feature Dr. Traves Crabtree and Dr. Stephen Hazelrigg, both with Southern Illinois Univer-sity School of Medicine, and Dr. P.J. Nanavati with University Radiologists. The program will also honor people living with lung cancer and those who have been lost to the disease.

Crabtree, a cardiothoracic surgeon and professor with the division of cardiothoracic surgery in the department of surgery at SIU School of Medicine, will discuss lung cancer prevention and screenings. Hazelrigg, chair of cardiothoracic surgery at Memorial Medical Center and the division of cardiothoracic sur-gery at SIU School of Medicine, will present new and innovative treatments for lung cancer.

Nanavati, a radiation oncologist, will discuss the use of stereotactic body radiation therapy to treat lung cancer.

Alicia Sparks, manager of integration management at Memorial Medical Center, will speak about mindfulness and lead the audience in a mindfulness exercise. A cus-tom-made lung model with a camera will be set up for participants to visualize what takes place during lung cancer surgery.

Shine a Light on Lung Cancer events, sponsored by the Lung Cancer Alliance, are hosted by health care facilities across the nation in November as part of Lung Cancer Awareness Month. Free parking is available in the Memorial Center for Learning and Innova-tion’s parking garage at Rutledge and Carpen-ter streets. Light refreshments will be served.

To register, visit MemorialMedical.com/Events or call 217-588-6254. ◆

Prairie Heart Institute pioneers new type of pacemaker

Public invited to informational event on lung cancer

HSHS St. John’s Children’s Hospital and O’Shea Builders hosted a demo day on Oct. to celebrate the start of construction on the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) renova-tion project.

The expanded and updated NICU will provide single family patient rooms for the first time in St. John’s 78-year history of caring for premature and critically-ill infants. As the only Level III NICU in the area, serving 39 counties across an approximate 80-mile radius, this is a critical medical resource to protect the healthy recovery and develop-ment of babies.

“Our highly skilled NICU care team delivers some of the best outcomes in the country, but our needs have grown beyond the space we have available to our families now,” said E.J. Kuiper, president and CEO of HSHS St. John’s Hospital. “The standard of care is a private, peaceful environment featuring single family rooms where parents can stay the night with their baby. That is what we will be able to provide for babies and their families once this project is com-plete.”

Research has shown this type of fam-

ily-centered care reduces the length of a NICU stay by approximately 5.3 days. The average length of stay in St. John’s NICU is 25 days. St. John’s also plans to offer couplet care rooms in the expanded NICU. Couplet care rooms allow healthy moms and their babies to heal together in the same space. St. John’s will be the first hospital in downstate Illinois to offer this type of care.

“We’re honored to be a part of the NICU expansion project at St. John’s. The NICU has had a tremendous impact on the community and has also had an impact on the families of O’Shea Builders,” said Mike O’Shea, president of O’Shea Builders. “We are excited to celebrate with St. John’s and to get started on the expansion.”

Each year, approximately 2,000 babies are born at St. John’s Children’s Hospital. The St. John’s NICU cares for approximately 700 babies annually. The NICU project is the centerpiece of hospital-wide fundraising campaign, Imagine Tomorrow, which is rais-ing money in support of patient care, edu-cation and research. The HSHS St. John’s Foundation is continuing to raise money toward the NICU project. ◆

Work begins on St. John’s NICU renovations