FARGO - Former North Dakota State University men's basketball coach Erv Inniger thanked the staff of Sanford Health's heart unit Friday for saving his life last week in remarkable speed - 37 minutes.
"I owe my life to you," he said. "I think I'm here today because of you. You people are magnificent."
Inniger - head coach from 1978 to 1992 before retiring as NDSU's senior associate athletic director last year - was on his way to his office at NDSU when he developed chest pain.
"I felt like several people were standing on my chest," he said.
He stopped at the NDSU trainers' office, and the staff there called 911 when Inniger's symptoms worsened. F-M Ambulance and the Fargo Fire Department responded, and Inniger was taken to Sanford, where his right coronary artery was opened. The entire process, from the first EKG in the field until his artery was opened, took 37 minutes.
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"We have it all protocolled. Everyone knows what's expected," said Dr. Craig Kouba, a cardiologist who worked on Inniger. That protocol is what made it possible for Inniger's procedure to go so quickly.
"It's designed so there are no delays," Kouba said. F-M Ambulance communicated Inniger's condition to Sanford before he even arrived, so the heart staff was prepared and could work efficiently.
"Thirty-seven minutes - they hadn't even found my wife by that time," Inniger joked.
"What a team. You've got to be proud," he said.
Inniger said he had no symptoms before he developed the pain in his chest.
"You get up in the morning feeling 100 percent, and within an hour and a half, you're having surgery," he said. He'd walked three flights of stairs that morning and stretched, but he didn't feel a thing, he said.
It's rare for patients to visit the heart staff and thank them personally, after they've moved on to therapy and other treatments, but Inniger seemed to feel it was something he had to do.
"It's been a pleasure to come down and thank you personally," he said.
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Inniger said he considers the way his life was saved to be like a miracle.
"Some people say 'You're lucky,' but I say, 'No, I'm really blessed,' " Inniger said.
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