awake at night and on a regular program of ibuprofen and ice. Less than a week later, she was ready for physical therapy. Dr. Casey describes successful joint replacement surgery as “more than just the doctor.” “It’s the team,” he says, and Williams agrees. The week she spent in Moore Regional’s Center for Inpatient Rehabilitation wasn’t easy, but occupational therapist Dana McLean and physical therapist Heather Fraley were determined to help her return to the lifestyle she had come so close to losing. “I’ll rave about those folks,” she says about her inpatient rehab team. Eight weeks after her surgery, Williams was back at work and fully enjoying her grandchildren again. Dr. Casey and the therapists give a lot of the credit for her success to her personal motivation and hard work, but she shares her success with them. “The people in the hospital were so good to me and so kind,” she says. “I’m very pleased.”
Roylin Hammond, Laurinburg, Cardiology Services LAURINBURG—Roylin Hammond calls himself “one of the lucky people.” Lucky to live in a community that recognizes the importance of quality care for heart attack patients. Lucky that FirstHealth’s Reid Heart Center is an ambulance ride away. Lucky to be alive. “I’m here, living proof that the system really works,” he says. Hammond is Scotland County’s EMS director, so he was in one of the best places he could have been—at work—for the heart attack he had a few days before Christmas last year. Paramedics were just a few feet away and quickly noted his nausea, ashen ap-
pearance and dropping blood pressure and pulse. Because Scotland County has adopted the RACE (Reperfusion of Acute Myocardial Infarction in Carolina Emergency Departments) protocol for heart attack treatment, Hammond was on his way to Pinehurst and FirstHealth’s Reid Heart Center within minutes. When he arrived, a “swarm” of heart care professionals already familiar with his condition was waiting. “I didn’t realize that many people could work in one hospital,” he says. Within two hours of the attack’s onset, interventional cardiologist Peter L. Duffy, M.D., had performed a cardiac catheterization and then implanted a stent to reopen Hammond’s fully blocked right coronary artery. His cardiologist, Mark Landers, M.D., was also present for the procedure. Shortly afterward, Hammond was resting in a Reid Heart Center bed. The RACE plan that EMS Director Hammond had endorsed two years earlier probably saved his life by allowing a FirstHealth ambulance—one that is stationed in Laurinburg—to bypass a closer emergency department and take him to Moore Regional for emergency balloon angioplasty. Diagnostic information transmitted from the ambulance by paramedics confirmed a heart attack and allowed the hospital’s cardiac cath team to mobilize before he arrived. “When we rolled in the door, they were on me like white on rice for all practical purposes,” Hammond says. Although the stent took care of Hammond’s immediate problem, another blockage was also located and he returned to Reid Heart Center two months later for open-heart surgery performed by cardiothoracic surgeon Peter I. Ellman, M.D. After that, he participated in the Cardiac Rehab program at the FirstHealth Center for Health & Fitness–Pinehurst, learning how to adopt a healthier lifestyle through diet and exercise.
As EMS director for Scotland County, Roylin Hammond endorsed the county’s adoption of a heart attack protocol that probably saved his life by sending him to FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital and Reid Heart Center for treatment.
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