Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine Saves Life in New Zealand
Dalane W. Kitzman, professor of cardiovascular medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, recently traveled to New Zealand for his 40th wedding anniversary. While waiting in line for a tour bus, an older gentleman became unconscious and Dr. Kitzman successfully performed CPR on him.
Learn more about this medical incident and what advice Dr. Kitzman would provide to medical students.
Dalane Kitzman
Hi, I am Dalane Kitzman. I'm in the section on cardiovascular medicine. I've been here since 1992. I lead a number of research teams and also perform clinical care and education as well. We were in Auckland, New Zealand, for our 40th anniversary, and we were going to start a cruise the next day. It was a really hot day, and all of a sudden I saw a man completely pass out and hit the pavement very hard. At the same time, there were cries that go out, "Is there a doctor?" So I was already on my way and I knelt down, no pulse, no breathing, and I knew I needed to start CPR, but at the same time I was doing CPR and I was saying a prayer, "Dear Lord, do not let this man die. Not here, not now, not this way." After what seemed like a long time, but was probably just a couple of minutes, he started breathing. His pulse came back. There were a lot of people patting me on the back and congratulating me. Initially, I felt pride, and then I quickly pivoted and realized that it could have easily gone in the other direction. I happened to be there. I did some of the things, but really, this was God's intervention, and I needed to be humble about this. From many people, I've learned that the difference between treating a patient and caring for a patient can be as little as a smile, a kind word, a gentle squeeze of the hand, and that can make all the difference for the patient's experience. This first came to me when I was a second-year medical student. There was a fellow in cardiology, and he was giving bad news to a patient, essentially saying, "You've got a really bad form of heart disease. If you are able to recover, it's going to be a long, hard road." But then he added, "I will be with you every step of the way." It was such a powerful impression on me that ingrained in me the power of us as physicians, not in just the technical knowledge that we have and the skills, but always also in the human connection. Here is the advice that I'd give to a medical student, someone in training to be a nurse or a physician's assistant, and that is, remember that this human being in front of you not only has a disease but has tremendous worries, uncertainties, and fears about what comes next. In addition to choosing the right tests and the right treatments, choose also the right words to let them know that you're with them, that there are good treatments ahead, and that you're not going to abandon them.
Ultrasound Course Prepares Students to Save Lives
During his away rotation, Campbell Veasey, MD Class of 2024, was able to help save a patient thanks to specialized education he received at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. The Point of Care Ultrasound Course is a unique 4-week elective for 4th year medical students at the School of Medicine that teaches ultrasound skill development with 10 different specialties in critical care, emergency, clinic and community settings. The students complete over 100 ultrasound scans in the patient care setting in preparation for their respective residency programs. A major benefit of the ultrasound block is the longitudinal ultrasound curriculum that builds familiarity with major ultrasound applications, while students study physiology and pathophysiology.
Special thanks to course leaders Drs. Aarti Sarwal, Casey Glass, Casey Bryant and Joshua Zavitz, the RDMS teachers, including Jamie Tagliaferri, and the program staff.
Speaker 1
In our fourth year, we spend certain month-long blocks at other hospitals, it's called an away rotation, and I was doing one of these away rotations, I was in California. Emergency medicine is shift-based, so you work hard on your shift, and then you go home. I was leaving a shift late at night, I think it was around 1:00 or 2:00 AM, and on my way out I noticed a patient that was just sitting in a hallway bed waiting to get placed in a room, and he was sweating, which is never really a good sign in the ED.
So I go to chat with him, and I just say, "Hey, I'm just a medical student. I'm not part of your care team. Just saying hi, what's going on?" It turns out he had a blood clot diagnosed in his leg like six days ago, and he had been unable to pick up his blood thinners to remove the clot.
One of the scariest things in emergency medicine is when a blood clot in the leg can travel back up through our major veins into our heart and then into our lungs. That can be a life-threatening emergency. It's called pulmonary embolism. And I had a toolkit, wake had given me a toolkit. I had just gotten off a month-long block of ultrasound, where my director, Dr. Zabitz, told us, "You need to practice these until they're boring." And I was trained to do an ultrasound of the heart at bedside. Ultrasound is noninvasive. It's quite safe. It's one of our safest imaging modalities, and it is such a cool tool to not just treat people, but make sense of the human body and what's going on. I think Wake has recognized its learning value, and we are lucky to have the resources at our disposal to develop a good ultrasound understanding.
So I run and grab a probe, bring it back to this guy, put it on his chest, and immediately, as soon as I put the probe on his chest, having done dozens of these, I saw something pretty scary. The right side of the heart that pumps blood into the lungs is usually a little bit tinier and weaker than the left side that pumps against all the resistance in our body. In his case, the right heart was not only getting bigger, but there were signs that it was building up some pressure. It was beginning to bow into the left side of the heart, way more pressure than there should have been.
I saw what I needed to see. I clicked save the image. I think I literally ran and grabbed a resident. I said, "Hey, this person needs to go into the CT scanner. He's in trouble." And they believed me, we got him in the scanner. Sure enough, he had multiple blood clots in his lungs, and they got him on Heparin really quickly. They called the ICU. And I came into work the next day, and I went to go see him, and he turned out doing really well. And that was really cool, and I think I owe that almost entirely to Wake and how they train us in ultrasound from literally day one.
Medical Students Partner with NC A&T to host Doctor for a Day Program
Medical students, Renate Ma, McKenna Gallagher and Brie Jones, and Aarti Sarwal, MD, professor of neurology, at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, teamed up to create the “Doctor for a Day” program. The initiative was a collaborative effort with North Carolina A&T State University (NC A&T) Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students Committee and two NC A&T faculty members: Raymond Samuel, PhD, and Catherine White, PhD. The “Doctor for a Day” program paired 60 NC A&T undergraduate students with Wake Forest University School of Medicine medical students who helped lead simulation activities, vital sign and CPR/Naloxone trainings and ultrasound demonstrations. Undergraduate students discussed careers in medicine with a physician panel, toured Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and engaged with medical students on questions about medical school.Renate Ma
My name is Renate Ma and I'm a second year medical student. I've helped Dr. Sarwal organize the Doctor in a Day program with NCA and T, and it's sort of a career exploration activity where we get undergrad students to come and do skills stations in the morning. So we have ultrasound, vital signs, harm reduction, Narcan administration, intubation, and sort of a sim CPR and cardiac arrest station. And then we will have a few specialists come in during lunch and talk about what it's like to be a doctor and what their daily life is like.
Brie Jones
I hope the program will achieve kind of two goals, I would say initially to give this group of students who are underrepresented in medicine the ability to experience a day in medicine, to talk to different faculty members who are in different specialties, to do different simulations of procedures, things like that, and then also in the longterm, to foster connections between not only the medical students at Wake and the NCA and T students to discuss the applications process and financial aid and everything, but also with faculty to hopefully form some mentor connections based around the student's interest and give them some opportunities in the future.
Donquabious Wright
My plan for after graduation is to essentially do some type of fellowship. Currently, I'm applying for a fellowship with the CDC, and my reasoning for coming here today was to kind of get a better insight for what it looks like to actually be a doctor, because that is my ultimate goal. So just to be here in front of all of the medical students here at Wake Forest, it's very rewarding and I'm really enjoying the experience so far. I just learned how to intubate, to be able to actually do stuff that's going to be conducive to what I want to do in my future means a lot to me. A lot of hands on things happening today, and I'm really grateful for that.
McKenna
This program is super valuable for students, and I think it's hugely important to show them that medicine is a medical education that's accessible even when it doesn't feel like it, especially when you're someone who doesn't have family in medicine, which is definitely the case for me. It's nice to go to these types of things and see that they're accessible. When I was in college, I really would've liked to have something like this so that I could kind of see how to approach getting a medical education, so I really hope that this does that for those students, gives them kind of a picture of what it's like to apply.
Renate Ma
I think today's just meant to be fun and see what it's like because I feel like this career is a really daunting path, so I really hope they take something from it and just enjoy their time.
A Home for Sassy
In the Medical ICU at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, a patient with COVID-19 was admitted who was very upset over her pet dog, Sassy. When EMS picked up the patient, Sassy had been picked up, too, and the patient did not know where her dog had been taken. She did not have any close family to help her find her dog. That’s when 2 Medical ICU nurses took the time to locate Sassy and provide her with a foster home. Their compassion shows how nursing care for patients goes beyond giving medication and checking vitals. It’s about emotional care, too.
China Pegram
I got a report that the patient came in with Covid. It was kind of an emergent situation, and that she was upset about her dog that was missing. So first thing when I went into the patient's room, the first thing she asked me is, "Have you found my dog?" She had no clue. She just said EMS came in, took the dog, or took her and left. So I googled all the vets in Statesville, which was about 10 to 15. One person had heard of the dog, but said that they hadn't seen the dog in about a year. I called the animal shelter, and they actually had the dog. The patient had told me it was a black and white longhaired chihuahua, and the animal shelter said, "We have the dog. However," this was on a Monday, "you had till Wednesday to pick up the dog."
AnnaGrace Guffey
So I was working the same day. I heard through the grapevine, as we do on the unit, that there was a dog named Sassy and she needed a home. And I thought I would be able to help bridge that gap.
Before I went and picked her up, I did go in the patient's room and I gowned up and put on all my PPE and with a very muffled mask, I said, "Is it okay if Sassy comes home with me?" And she said, "Yeah, that'd be fine." I had driven and picked her up about 45 minutes away and brought her back.
China Pegram
So I went down there, went into the patient's room, she didn't recognize me. But I told the patient, I said, "Me and you have had this conversation about this dog." And she just lit up, "Sassy." And I showed her a picture that AnnaGrace had sent me, and she just started crying.
I think nursing is more than just medication and watching vitals. I think it's more about caring and being compassionate and being someone's cheerleader. And in the years of nursing, I've realized that everybody has a motivator, and that's the one thing that I try to find out, what their motivation is. And for her, it was Sassy.
AnnaGrace Guffey
It's something that I would hope someone would do for me if I ever found myself in that situation. And I think it's as simple as that.
Football Safety Clinic
Football is America's most popular sport, but many are divided about whether youth should play the tackle version of the game. Joel Stitzel, PhD, professor and chair of biomedical engineering and Jillian Urban, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, have been working over a decade to understand ways to improve safety of the game, while maintaining the love of the sport.In the next phase of this research, Urban has been working with a team of stakeholders in the local youth football community to develop an intervention program to reduce head impacts and concussion risk in practice. Urban and the stakeholder team discovered that local high school coaches have been incorporating safe practices for many years through guidelines provided by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association and are motivated to adhere to the guidelines to keep their players healthy. To best reach youth football coaches, Urban and her team coordinated an event where local high school coaches could educate youth coaches on effective practice planning and how to incorporate different drills in practice to develop the skills of athletes, and keep them safe.
Share the Health Fair Brings Free Health Care
The 22nd annual Share the Health Fair, sponsored by Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, Wake Forest University School of Medicine and the Northwest Area Health Education Center, served almost 400 local individuals. The free event offered more than 10 free screenings, tests and other health-related services and was open to all adults regardless of insurance coverage, income level or immigration status. A comprehensive team of family medicine physicians and specialists provided care, along with medical students, physician assistant students, technicians and other health care professionals.
Walter Duy
Share the Health Fair is a one-day event that the School of Medicine puts on, and it's sponsored by the Northwest AHEC and it's held at the Downtown Health Plaza.
Pinyu Chen
So it's an opportunity for individuals within our community who might not have access to health care to get free health screenings from us.
Walter Duy
We had vitals, so blood pressure, BMI, blood glucose, as well as glaucoma and retina screenings.
Pinyu Chen
If we find something that's wrong during the screening process, we can direct them to physician consults. And from there on if we feel like they need follow-up care, we refer them to free clinics within our community.
Walter Duy
I feel like this one day event, even though it's just once a year, we were able to make a little bit of a difference in our community.
Pinyu Chen
For the fair that is a really eye-opening experience for all of us to realize, that there are a lot of health disparities within our community, and as future healthcare providers, we need to kind of help alleviate them.
Walter Duy
I think that having this hands-on experience as well as being involved in the community is very helpful to round out our education.
Student Saves Classmates Life after Learning Heimlich Maneuver at Camp Med
During the summer of 2021, Alan Morales, 18, completed Camp Med, an educational summer program geared at exposing students to the varied career opportunities in the health care field which also introduces them to basic skills such as the Heimlich maneuver, CPR and how to tie a tourniquet.Morales didn’t think he would have to put those skills so quickly to the test, but when he noticed a classmate that was choking on a bite of food during lunch, he quickly recalled what he had learned the previous summer at Camp Med. The then 11th-grader immediately started performing the Heimlich maneuver on his classmate and successfully dislodged the bite of food – Morales was not familiar with the Heimlich maneuver prior to his time at Camp Med.
Camp Med is a program provided by a partnership between local school systems and the Northwest Area Health Education Center (AHEC) of Wake Forest University School of Medicine and part of the North Carolina AHEC system.
Alan Morales
I am out here throwing the first pitch at the Winston-Salem Dash game, and I'm being honored for performing the Heimlich maneuver on my friend at lunch. I remember looking up and seeing that Ian's face had turned bright purple and that he was not breathing at all. I was pretty far away from him. So I got up from my table, ran around, and just started performing the Heimlich maneuver on him. I was pumped on a lot of adrenaline whenever it happened. I just remember I was shaking a little bit, but I was just glad that he was okay. I had taken Camp Med in the summer and it really taught me a whole bunch of vital skills of how to help people. I thought I was going to be an engineer, but after Camp Med, it completely changed my perspective on things. You never know whenever something's going to happen, and this class really prepared you for those situations. I had no clue that this was ever going to happen to me, and all of a sudden, whenever I saw him choking, I knew I had to do something.
Kidney Donations Save Lives
Every 14 minutes, someone in need is added to the U.S. kidney transplant list, which currently has more than 90,000 people on it. Outcomes from a living donor are often better for the recipient, and the chance of living donors having any problems with their remaining kidney is only 0.3%. Kidneys are the most donated organ, and a record 25,000-plus kidneys were donated in 2022. Because people have two kidneys but only need one to survive, they are the most common living organ donation. Unfortunately, despite the increase in donations, the need still outweighs the supply.
Laura Laxton, a copywriting strategist for Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, decided to donate due to the need of a family friend. She began the testing process along with her husband and although neither were a match for their friend, Laura proceeded with the donation journey and successfully donated her kidney in November 2021. Laura doesn't know who received her kidney but wants people to know the donation process and surgery has had zero impact on the quality of her life and ongoing health, and that her recovery from the surgery was much easier than she imagined.
Because Laura donated a kidney for her, Laura's friend moved up on the transplant waiting list. A couple of months after Laura's surgery, her friend found a match, too.
Cancer Survivor Returns for Tour 50 Years Later
In 2022, Judye Mangus called Patient and Family Relations with a special request. She wanted to tour Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist’s Comprehensive Cancer Center on November 16, 2022, the 50th anniversary of her first cancer surgery. Judye brought her husband and two brothers with her for a tour and a chance to thank the Cancer Center nurses.Oncology Nurse Completes Ironman and Raises Over $12,000 for Cancer Support
Colleen Sands has always wanted to help others, which is why she became a nurse. As an oncology nurse at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist’s National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, she wanted to support patients by doing something she loves.
In July 2022, she completed her second Ironman competition and raised just over $12,000, exceeding her goal of $10,000, for the Cancer Patient Support Program (CPSP) at the Comprehensive Cancer Center.
CPSP has offered support for cancer patients and their loved ones for more than 40 years. It provides counseling services, support groups, a healing music program and hospitality rooms for patients and their families awaiting treatments. The program also offers the opportunity to participate in tai chi and yoga.
Medical Students Collect 600+ Prescription Glasses for Underserved Communities
More than 165 million U.S. adults wear prescription eyeglasses, and the majority of consumers pay between $100 and $150 just for frames, according to The Vision Council. But not everyone can afford these eyeglasses, which is why programs like Respectacle at Wake Forest University School of Medicine are so important.
The School of Medicine just started their chapter of Respectacle – a national nonprofit organization that collects donated prescription glasses and helps repurpose them for people who may be struggling to obtain them through conventional means – this academic year. Participating students have already produced around 600 prescription eyeglasses, making them the third ranked chapter in the country for this year.
Respectacle is just one of more than 35 student organizations at the School of Medicine.
Breaking New Ground
Construction has officially begun on the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center care tower!
Gene Woods, MBA, MHA, FACHE, President and CEO of Atrium Health, and other leaders, joined Julie Freischlag, MD, FACS, FRCSEd(Hon), DFSVS, CEO, Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, Dean of Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Chief Academic Officer, Atrium Health, to celebrate this significant milestone.
The care tower is the first in a series of significant investments in the Triad region as a result of our strategic combination with Atrium Health. It will include an upgraded emergency department, state-of-the-art operating rooms and enhanced adult intensive care units.
Wake Forest University School of Medicine Students Help Employees' Kids Achieve Their Best SELF
The Best SELF (Supportive Enrichment and Learning for Families) program is designed to support Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist employees and their families by offering middle and high school-aged children of employees the opportunity to receive free tutoring and mentoring services from Wake Forest University School of Medicine students. Best SELF is focused on academic achievement with the overarching goals to increase high school graduation rates, enhance college preparedness and elevate student interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. It also helps our employees feel confident they have the internal support they need to be their best.
Teammates Reunite Mom with Triplets in NICU Through Teamwork
Priscilla Ayayee had delivered premature triplets and was still recovering from a high-risk pregnancy with significant complications. It had been a month since her daughters had been born, but Priscilla had only seen her babies in the Dale and Karen Sisel Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) a couple of times because she was still recovering in inpatient rehab.
PT/OT Clinical Coordinator Blair Davis, PT, DPT, NCS, was treating Priscilla, and noticed some disconnection when she talked about her babies. Blair contacted Rehab Care Coordinator Joy Watson, MSW, to find a way to bring the mom and her triplets together to help improve their bond. Working together across our departments shows how our teammates are committed to improve care for ALL.
MD Student's Message of Gratitude
Tiffany Ong, a member of Wake Forest University School of Medicine's MD Class of 2024, is thankful to those who made her medical education possible. Ong received the MD Class of 1952 Scholarship, established by alumni members of that class, as well as the Terrell and Nancy Estes Family Scholarship and the Ellen and Andrew Schindler Medical Scholarship. Ong's letter describes her family's remarkable journey that led her to medical school and reflects the deep gratitude that scholarship support inspires.
Roe Roe Rings the Victory Bell
“I’m sorry, but your daughter has leukemia.”
In 2019, Chad and Meredith Tucker were given this diagnosis for their daughter Pearl Monroe Tucker, affectionately called Roe Roe. It was a diagnosis no parent ever wants to hear.
After many treatments at Brenner Children's, Roe Roe's care journey has reached a wonderful milestone. Roe Roe rang the victory bell at the Pediatric Oncology Clinic to symbolize the end of her chemotherapy/radiation stage of cancer treatment and the start of her next steps toward healing and recovery.
Want to make a difference for more children in our community? Consider making a gift to Brenner Children’s.
Eddie the Excavator
Pediatric patients at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Brenner Children’s Hospital recently gathered at the windows of Ardmore Tower to meet a piece of construction equipment affectionately named Eddie the Excavator. Eddie was busy tearing down Parking Deck B to make room for the new care tower at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
Our new care tower planning team coordinated the event with the construction contractor, Brasfield & Gorrie. “Eddie was so interactive,” said Alisa Starbuck, DPN, APRN, NNP-BC, NEA-BC, president, Brenner Children’s. “The children got to ask him questions, watch him work and even eat a watermelon. The whole crew was down below to wave to the children, so this was just a fabulous event for our children.”