Hanover Fire and South Shore Hospital Work As One to Save Heart Attack Patient

When it comes to a heart attack, fast response is the difference between life and death. According to the National Institutes of Health, about half of patients who die from a heart attack do so within one hour of their first symptoms. For some patients, they may not even reach the hospital in time to receive treatment.

In late 2019, Robert Meehan of Scituate had just finished a workout at his gym in Hanover when he noticed he wasn’t feeling right. The Hanover Fire Department responded to the 911 call.

“He was sitting in the foyer, and he looked a little sweaty,” recalls Joshua Morrison, a firefighter and paramedic for the Hanover Fire Department. And while that may not be unusual for a man who just worked out, the team was concerned and performed an EKG.

“We looked right at it on the monitor and knew it was a heart attack,” says Joseph Centeio, a Hanover firefighter and paramedic.

The Hanover team took quick action, sending the EKG to the doctors in South Shore Hospital’s Emergency Department. David Denmark, MD, an Interventional Cardiologist, opened Meehan’s EKG on his mobile device before the ambulance arrived in Weymouth. This allowed him to be fully prepared to meet Meehan’s needs.

Once Meehan arrived at the hospital, he was brought directly to the Cardiac Catheterization Lab where Dr. Denmark inserted a stent into Meehan’s blocked artery, saving his life.

It took just 55 minutes from the time the Hanover Fire Department arrived at Meehan’s gym to have the stent inserted.

“It was a great experience,” Meehan says. He is out of the hospital and is on the road to recovery.

Learn more about the emergency response that saved Robert Meehan's life in this video.

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