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Soaked
with perspiration, unable
to get comfortable and with an extreme
heaviness in his chest, John Verkaik,
of Eustis, awoke at 4:15 one morning,
without even a thought that he was
having a heart attack.
“I didn’t think it was that bad, so I
walked around for a little bit and laid
back down for a while thinking it was
just going to pass,” says Verkaik. Joyce
Verkaik, John’s wife, insisted they call
their daughter, Charlene, who works
dispatch at Lake County Emergency
Medical Services, hoping she might
have a suggestion.
Charlene immediately recognized the
signs of a heart attack and instructed her
mother to call 911.
“I couldn’t get my mind to believe
what was happening until the paramedics
arrived and they had me hooked up to the
GET INVOLVED IN YOUR
HEART HEALTH TODAY
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Month events, where you can learn
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Prabhakara B. Kunamneni,
MD
in a heartbeat
machines,” says Verkaik. “It just wasn’t
happening the way I would have imagined
it. I didn’t have intense pain, but rather it
felt like someone was just sitting on top of
me. I really didn’t want to call 911 because
I didn’t want to bother anyone, but I’m
glad I did.”
Integrated, specialized care
Verkaik was taken by ambulance to
the emergency department at Florida
Hospital Waterman, which has a unified
communication system with Lake
Emergency Medical Services and other
local first responders. The system helps
to ensure virtually seamless care from
the time of the 911 call to the arrival at
the hospital. Lake Emergency Medical
Services is equipped to perform an EKG
(electrocardiogram) during transport
and deliver the results directly from the
ambulance to the
hospital.
Once Verkaik
arrived at the
emergency
department,
physicians and the
medical team were
ready to act quickly.
He was immediately
Life can change—
John and Joyce Verkaik enjoy their afternoon smoothie.
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Charlene DeGroot, an
emergency services dispatcher,
knows how important it is to
act quickly at the first sign of
a heart attack.