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Elle Susnis is a graphic designer and
lives in Sandpoint, Idaho, with her son.
She currently serves as a member of the
Sandpoint Arts Commission and has a
passion for community art.
By Andrea Nagel
On July
31
, after a long day
of work, Elle Susnis went to
dinner following a late meeting.
Everything seemed normal. She
met up with friends at a favorite
Sandpoint pub and was enjoying
their time together.
While at the restaurant, Elle said
she went blue in the face and had
to lie down on the floor. A friend
instructed the staff to call 911.
Elle was resuscitated at Bonner
General Hospital and was then flown
to Kootenai Health on Life Flight.
She was admitted to critical care
and placed in a hypothermic coma
to help preserve her brain function
while our providers worked to stabilize
her heart. Therapeutic hypothermia
helps preserve brain cells by
reducing the need for oxygen and
blood flow to the brain. Another
benefit of reducing blood flow to the
brain is the prevention of harmful
enzymes created during cardiac
arrest that could cause damage.
T R A C K I N G T H E B R A I N
Kootenai Health is the only
hospital in the area that is
able to continually track
brain activity in
hypothermia
patients in real
time (the next
closest is in
Salt Lake City).
Kootenai’s neurodi-
agnostics team is
notified within 10 seconds
if a hypothermia patient’s
brain is going into crisis.
“Unfortunately, even in this
day and age, most patients do
not survive ventricular fibrillation
when it occurs outside the
hospital,” said Eteri Byazrova,
M.D., cardiologist with Kootenai’s
Heart Clinics Northwest. “Immedi-
ate treatment is to apply electrical
shock to the patient’s chest called
defibrillation. The sooner it is done,
the better chances of survival are.
After arrival at the hospital, external
cooling (called hypothermia) may
be used to reduce the amount of
damage to the brain caused by
cardiac arrest.”
C H A O T I C C O N T R A C T I O N S
Once she awoke, Elle had to relearn
basic tasks such as eating, drinking
and walking. After working with
therapists and nurses in critical care,
Elle’s heart condition could be
more fully diagnosed and treated.
Ventricular fibrillation is a life-
threatening condition where the
cells of the lower chambers of the
heart contract chaotically, at rates
over 300 beats per minute.
“Normally heart muscle contracts
and relaxes at rates between 40 and
180 beats per minute,” Dr. Byazrova
said. “Very rapid rates do not allow
heart muscle to relax so the heart
essentially stops. This arrhythmia
usually occurs as a complication of
acute or remote heart attack. Less
commonly they result from prior viral
infection of the heart or one of
several inheritable conditions. Very
rarely, as in Elle’s case, it can occur
without any of these. We call it
idiopathic ventricular fibrillation.”
To treat this condition, Dr. Byazrova
inserted a defibrillator under the skin
in Elle’s chest. It can determine
within 15 to 18 seconds if Elle has
any abnormal heart rhythm activity
and provide an electric shock that
helps the heart return to a normal
rhythm.
Elle said she is thankful for the
care she received and is happy that
after just six weeks she was able to
return to work and get back to her
normal life with her 10-year-old son.
“Everyone was remarkable,” Elle
said. “I received good care every
step of the way. Every part made it
possible for me to get back to my
son and back to our life.”
P U T Y O U R H E A R T
I N G O O D H A N D S .
For more information about
Kootenai’s Heart Clinics Northwest
or to schedule an appointment, call
the main Spokane office at
(509)
838-7711
or the Coeur d’Alene
office at
(208) 625-5250
.
KH . ORG
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