New Sanford Program Helps Save Mandan Man's Life - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

A Mandan man has a second chance at life.

Mike Koch (cook) went from having lunch to the operating table in less than an hour.

But thanks to a new program at Sanford Health, Koch walked out of the hospital two days later.

Mike Koch started having pains about 11am last Wednesday. He thought it was heartburn.

"Went to eat it got a little worse. In the middle of dinner my arm started tingling and the guy that I work with told me we gotta go," says Koch."

Minutes later Koch walked through this door at Sanford.

"Told the gal at registration that I was having chest pains and she asked to see my I.D. and as soon as I handed it to her that's the last thing I remember," says Koch.

"He wasn't breathing, they had to bring him back, it was pretty scary," says Deb Koch.

Mike had collapsed at the front desk.

"The emergency room physician and the crew down there were able to resuscitate him, shock him back to life and then alerted me right away and we were able to take him down to the cath lab and open up his artery," says Dr.Karthik Reddy.

Thanks to a new program--39 minutes after Mike walked into Sanford, Dr. Reddy's team had cleared the blocked artery.

"We've implemented here at the hospital a STEMI program which is just a faster streamlined system that we can care for these patients in a more effective efficient way," says Noelle Riehl.

STEMI's are the most deadly of heart attacks because they involve complete blockage of an artery. The faster doctors get to patients, the more likely they are to live.

"If it wasn't for the people in the emergency room, I wouldn't be here," says Koch.

The stints are also less invasive and allow patients to recover more quickly.

In Mike's case, the stent saved his life, and two days later he was back at home.

He says he will ultimately have to have open heart surgery, but doctors tell him he should be able to do most of the things he did before.