At first, Esmeralda (Esme) Gibson thought the pain was not serious. It would go away by the morning, she reasoned. “I initially thought I had indigestion,” Esme says, “but the pain kept getting worse.” In the middle of the night, she decided to research her symptoms online, and “I saw that what I was experiencing seemed to match the heart attack symptoms for women.” What she read convinced Esme that she needed to call 911, and she was relieved when emergency personnel arrived and transported her to Huntington Hospital, an institution she knew and trusted. Both she and her late husband, Bob, had been patients here in the past. “All the doctors who cared for us were so careful and efficient,” she says, “and I’ve known some of them for a long time. It’s part of the reason Bob and I began donating to the hospital.” Though she was anxious about her condition, Esme was reassured when interventional cardiologist Gregory Giesler, MD, arrived at her bedside in our emergency department. Dr. Giesler had been on Bob’s cardiac care team and, more recently, Esme had heard him speak at a hospital event where he shared information about the latest advances in cardiac care. “I can’t tell you how relieved I was to see him walk through the door,” she says. “I knew I was in good hands.”
Esme Gibson From the heart.
16 Transform
