When Israel Martins walked past the hallway to the cardiac catheterization lab at MelroseWakefield Hospital in late January, he was met by a group of enthusiastic staff members – nurses, technicians and physicians – who had last seen him a month previously when he was on the procedure table in cardiac catheterization lab fighting for his life. This occasion was his first checkup following a life-saving cardiac intervention by many of the same people who were now giving him hugs. His smile revealed his appreciation of what this team had given him—a second chance.
Israel, 47, a personal trainer from Saugus, was working out with his son Weslley on December 10, 2024, when he began to feel strange. “I was dizzy, nauseous, and felt a pressure in my chest,” he said. They decided to go home and hoped for the feeling to pass. While at home, his symptoms worsened. His arms went limp, he experienced jaw pain and he lost consciousness several times.
By the time he arrived at MelroseWakefield Hospital’s emergency department, Israel was in the throes of an ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), a serious type of heart attack with a high risk of serious complications and death.
Gerard Daly, MD, an interventional cardiologist at MelroseWakefield Hospital who was recently named one of Boston’s Top Doctors by Boston Magazine, met Israel at the Emergency Department. Israel remembers meeting Dr. Daly in the ED and being told, “You have got to fight for your life” and “We are fighting for you.”
Moments after they met, Israel’s heart went into a fatal arrhythmia called ventricular tachycardia (VT) caused by what was later found to be a blocked coronary artery. Within minutes, Dr. Daly and the cardiovascular team began CPR and preparations for life-saving treatments in the cardiac catheterization lab. During the next few minutes, Israel’s heart stopped beating three times, requiring shocks from a defibrillator each time. “There is a saying in the cath lab that ‘minutes are muscle’ when a heart vessel or coronary artery is blocked,” said Dr. Daly. “For every minute that goes by, more heart muscle is potentially damaged, and we needed to act fast for Israel.”
MelroseWakefield Hospital, through its clinical partnership with Tufts Medical Center, has access to sophisticated lifesaving technologies and equipment, including the Impella, the world’s smallest implantable heart pump. “We knew that we had to take some stress off of Israel’s heart, and thanks to the Impella, we could do just that,” said Dr. Daly.
Teams immediately mobilized, while CPR kept Israel’s weakened heart going. “This was a full multi-team response to get that pump to Israel’s heart,” said Dr. Daly.
The Impella, manufactured locally in Danvers, MA, is a tiny implantable pump inserted minimally-invasively with a catheter through the femoral artery of the groin and into the heart’s pumping chamber. “The Impella takes over the pumping for the heart, giving the heart some time to rest and recover from the trauma it just experienced,” said Dr. Daly. “Essentially, it takes the heart offline so it can rest.”
With the Impella in place, Dr. Daly and the team could then open up or revascularize the blocked arteries and get his blood flowing to the muscle of the heart.
“Israel was lucky that we had access to the Impella; without it, he wouldn’t have survived,” said Dr. Daly. “We were able to stabilize him with the Impella and then do what we do routinely in the lab – open up his arteries. Ultimately, we placed two stents inside Israel’s arteries to keep the vessels open,” said Dr. Daly.
Dr. Daly recalls that every single medical team member that day did their job perfectly: from the moment Israel entered the emergency department, through CPR, the Impella placement and ultimately the stent placements. “The combination of people and technology saved his life,” he remembered.
Once his condition was stabilized, Israel was transported to Tufts Medical Center to recover. “I couldn’t be more proud of our team and the way they responded,” said Dr. Daly. “Israel did not have much time when he arrived at the hospital.” For patients who present with Israel’s type of heart attack, the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) recommend a “door-to-balloon” time (the time it takes from when the patient arrives at the hospital to when their arteries have been unblocked by a catheter balloon) of no more than 90 minutes. The MelroseWakefield Hospital team placed the Impella pump and then revascularized Israel in under 70 minutes.
Israel doesn’t remember much after meeting Dr. Daly in the Emergency Department, but that night left an impact.
“Everyone has a purpose in life. Although as a personal trainer I pride myself on keeping my body in top form, I had been neglecting some important health indicators prior to this incident. Dr. Daly and his team were there to not only save my life, but to also give me more purpose. I got my second chance and I feel like a new man!”
Israel Martins, patient
MelroseWakefield Hospital is nationally recognized for its cardiac and heart care, having been recognized by U.S. News and World Report as High Performing in Heart Failure. The hospital is also one of only a handful of community hospitals across Massachusetts licensed to operate a cardiac catheterization lab, where life-saving treatments and procedures are performed routinely.
