ON
Feb. 3, 2016, the first pacemaker
implant procedure in the history of
Union County was performed at
Grande Ronde Hospital by Cardi
ologist Emilia Arden, DO, FACC.
Led by Dr. Arden, the surgical team
that day included Anesthesiologist Tim
Schoenfelder, MD; Cathy Deckert, RN;
Michelle Sandoval, RN; Jesse Davison,
RN; and Brian Buckingham, RT(R)
(CT). Did they realize they were
making history? Yes, they did.
“I’ve been here almost 30 years,
and in that time there have been a
lot of firsts—we have a very nice
hospital here,” says Dr. Schoenfelder.
“I was really impressed by Dr. Arden—
she was totally on top of it. She is a
great addition to expanding the level
of specialty care we can provide here.”
Communication is key
Pacemaker implants are nothing
new to Dr. Arden, who did many
of them during her tenure with
St. Vincent’s Hospital in Portland.
“I’ve done lots of them, and it’s
what I love to do,” says Dr. Arden.
“We had never done one here, of
course, and everyone was asking—
are you sure we can do this? Luckily,
the (pacemaker) representative was
going to be here, so I told everyone—
yes, we can do this, and we are going
to do this. And we did! It was great! I
think we have done six or seven
more since then.”
Dr. Arden prepared the team
for that first procedure by
bringing them all together to
explain what would
happen, and what the
role was for each
member of the team.
“At first we
weren’t
sure we were ready
for something like
this,” recalls
Sandoval, “but Dr.
Arden kept telling
us it was not a big
deal; very similar
to inserting a porta
cath, and we do those all
the time.” Sandoval explains
that a portacath is an
intravenous catheter placed
First pacemaker implant
at GRH a great success
Cardiologist Emilia Arden, DO, FACC, performed the history-making pacemaker
implant procedure at Grande Ronde Hospital in February 2016.
—Continued on page 2
G R A N D E
R O N D E
H O S P I TA L
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A JOURNAL DEVOTED TO HEALTHFUL L I V I NG
SPR I NG 2016
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