TIMMINS - A patient helped save a local doctor's life.
Dr. Chris Loreto didn't know he was having a heart attack while he was helping a patient through a heart attack last November.
When Loreto and the patient were transferred to Health Sciences North in Sudbury, they ended up in rooms across the hall from each other.
The wife of the patient stopped by to thank Loreto for saving her husband's life.
“I said: ‘No, thank you for saving my life," he said in a Timmins and District Hospital news release.
With February being heart month, TDH is sharing Loreto's story.
The well-known doctor has been at the Timmins hospital for three decades and is the head of the emergency department.
His symptoms started over four months before the heart attack.
While running he started having chest pain — a burning fire going up his throat and into his teeth.
"He would scream, often in front of the same house, to work through the pain," reads the news release.
Thinking it was acid reflux, Loreto talked to his doctor for medication. He left out that the pain hit him during exercise and the medications didn't help.
Playing hockey on Nov. 12, the pain hit again and stayed, lingering in his shoulders.
"Shrugging it off, he went to work the next morning. Near the end of his shift, a patient had a massive heart attack which Dr. Loreto jumped in to help with. Afterwards, he spoke to the patient’s wife to learn more about his symptoms leading up to this event. Both he and the patient were on the same medication for acid reflux," said the hospital.
Loreto shared his symptoms with colleagues, they did bloodwork and an EKG, confirming he was having a heart attack.
After being treated in Sudbury he was transferred to St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto and had stents put in. He's back in Timmins doing cardia rehab sessions and is still on medical leave.
Heart attacks run in Loreto's family.
His dad had one at 59. Loreto was 60 when his hit.
“That’s the power of genetics,” he said.
Heart attack symptoms can include:
- Chest discomfort (pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain, burning or heaviness)
- Upper body discomfort (neck, jaw, shoulder, arms and back)
- Shortness of breath
- Sweating
- Nausea
- Light-headedness
Women can have a heart attack without chest pressure, says the hospital. Their symptoms may include shortness of breath, pressure or pain in the lower chest or upper abdomen, dizziness, lightheadedness, fainting, upper back pressure or extreme fatigue.