Right Place, Right Time  

Heart attack survivor Peggy Pasternak (left) is thankful her supervisor, Lynda Burrell, R.N., (right) insisted that she go to the ER — timely advice she’s sure saved her life.
It’s rare indeed that an employee can credit her co-workers and workplace with saving her life, but Peggy Pasternak can.

Unaware that she was minutes from a heart attack while on the job at the Alta Bates Campus a year ago, Pasternak says her supervisor’s insistence that she go immediately to the ER — plus the top-quality care she received there, in the cath lab, and in subsequent Summit Campus quadruple bypass surgery — is why she’s alive to talk about it today.

“I’d been having bouts of nausea and heartburn and was totally oblivious to these symptoms as signs of heart problems. The day I had the attack, I told my manager [Lynda Burrell, R.N.] that I had pressure high in my chest, and I had a little pulling sensation on the right side of my neck,” says Pasternak, who is a medical surgery administrative coordinator and 16-year Alta Bates Summit veteran. “She said, ‘You should go down to the ER.’ And when I kept saying, ‘I’m not going to go down there,’ she said, ‘As a nurse, I’m telling you it’s something you should get looked at.’”

Burrell walked Pasternak down to the ER, where her heart attack struck. Urgent angioplasty in the cath lab — a hospital resource that’s been generously supported by the Alta Bates Summit Foundation — keyed in on four arterial blockages, which were ultimately treated by the bypass procedure.

“I couldn’t have asked for better care — and it wasn’t just because I was an employee. It’s how they care for all their patients,” says Pasternak, who underwent cardiac rehab and was back on the job less than six months later. “I am extremely lucky — lucky to have been at Alta Bates Summit and to have the care of the nurses, doctors, and staff here.”