Dee Faessler has had a year to think about why she was so hesitant to seek medical attention last May, when she began feeling something she thought was bad indigestion or heartburn.
The discomfort kept building, until her husband called for an ambulance.
“I thought it would be better in a few minutes,” Faessler said. “It wasn’t.”
Paramedic Ivan Higashi arrived and convinced her to go to the hospital.
“He said, ‘Since I’m here anyway, maybe we can go anyway,’” Faessler said. “He didn’t laugh or anything.”
Higashi even told her he would feel bad if he heard anything had happened to her, and said he didn’t want to return to the station and tell his co-workers he was sent away. Faessler said she almost felt bad for him, so she agreed to go along. Once in the ambulance, she said she noted his professional manner.
“They do an amazing amount of stuff really quickly,” she said. “They’re very calm when they do this.”
Faessler reached the hospital, where she was diagnosed with ventricular tachycardia — a rapid heart rate — and sent to The Queen’s Medical Center on Oahu, where doctors installed an implant defibrillator with a lead on her heart.
In June 2013, she wrote a letter to Fire Chief Darren Rosario commending Higashi.
“Had Ivan not ignored how I really didn’t want to go to the hospital — I would now be dead,” Faessler wrote.
On Tuesday, she met up with Higashi, his ambulance driver and several other medics and firefighters who responded to subsequent calls to her Kailua-Kona home last summer, when her defibrillator shocked her during new accelerated heart rate incidents. Faessler brought flower lei, carrot cake and mint chocolate chip ice cream to thank them for saving her.
Higashi said medics often encounter women who are having heart problems, but don’t necessarily recognize the symptoms, which are different from the symptoms men have. In addition, he said, the women having heart problems may, like Faessler, not have any risk factors for a heart attack. In Faessler’s case, her problem stemmed from a genetic issue of which she was aware, but that had never caused her problems in the past.
Higashi and the other firefighters and medics meeting with Faessler said they’re just doing their jobs.
“It’s good to know we made a difference,” he said. “It means everything we’ve trained for — it’s a reflection on everyone, what they did preparing us for this moment. Things like this, it’s a treat to have someone come and show their appreciation.”
Kyle Teves, who was the paramedic two times in July when Faessler’s defibrillator was shocking her, said he was glad to see a positive outcome.
“It’s always good to hear back good things from what we do,” he said.