After a pulmonary embolism, a runner’s rapid save

Molly Fadden, a 30-year-old financial analyst, was in the kitchen of her Chester Springs townhouse one day in March when she suddenly felt winded, her heart beating fast. Fadden, who was recovering from a minor surgery on her right big toe, chalked up the symptoms—and others she’d had that week—to being anxious or out of shape. She’d had to take a break from her typical exercise regimen for her recovery, but that was expected; the surgery itself was going to help her eventually return to running without pain. She brushed off her husband’s suggestion that they go to the hospital.

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Days later, as she climbed into bed, Fadden’s symptoms took a turn. “When I put my hand back by the pillow, I felt a pull right by my heart,” she says. “All of a sudden, I could feel my heart racing. I was breathing a lot, but not getting good oxygen flow.” This time, when her husband suggested the hospital, Fadden said, “yes,” and agreed to an ambulance.

Within minutes, doctors at Penn Medicine Chester County Hospital diagnosed Fadden with a pulmonary embolism, a life-threatening blood clot in the lungs. Within two hours, the Penn Medicine Transfer Center dispatched a PennSTAR helicopter team that brought her the 23 miles to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in just 13 minutes. There, she received a clot-removing embolectomy as part of a clinical trial of new catheter technology.

Once Fadden was set for transfer to Penn Presbyterian for an embolectomy, her case was screened by the Cardiology Division’s research team, which was tasked with determining whether she met the criteria for any of its clinical trials—and if offering her a trial technology might improve her chances of full recovery.

Fadden’s case is a prime example of how the Transfer Center makes it easy for a patient with a specific medical problem to get rapid care from a team that is an expert in treating that exact condition, says interventional cardiologist Russell Rosenberg, who performed her surgery and is an assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine. “She was the right patient finding herself in front of the right doctor to get the right procedure,” he says.

Read more at Penn Medicine News.