Good Samaritan Heart Program - Celebrating 30 Years of Firsts

KEARNEY–CHI Health Good Samaritan celebrates 30 years of launching the region’s first full-service heart program.

On Oct. 1, 1994, central Nebraska’s first angioplasty took place at Good Samaritan. That procedure was the last piece needed to offer advanced, comprehensive heart care services in Kearney. At the time the closest option for this level of lifesaving care could only be found in Lincoln or Omaha.

Cardiologist Dr. Ahmed Kutty, since retired, successfully returned arterial blood-flow of a 65-year-old from Holdredge. The male patient, having a prior angioplasty performed in Omaha, was adamant his second angioplasty take place in Kearney.

"These were leading-edge procedures even for hospitals in larger cities," says Stef Roper, Cath Lab, supervisor and with the hospital’s heart program for 20 years. "Our initial visionaries were determined to provide heart-saving care, here in Kearney, not hours away. The quicker the intervention, the better the outcome for our patients."

At the time, the hospital’s newly-expanded cath lab served a broad region–approximately 30 counties in central and western Nebraska and northern Kansas. Interventional heart procedures, predominantly balloon angioplasty, quickly grew from one to 1,500 in the first five years.

Open heart surgeries also surged from three cases in 1993, when the region’s first triple bypass was performed on a 66-year-old male from Lexington, to 275 cases in the first five years.

Today, more than 42,000 procedures have been performed in Good Samaritan’s two fully-equipped cath labs and new state-of-the-art hybrid cath lab. The only one of its kind from Lincoln to Denver, the hybrid cath lab is equipped for both catheterization and surgical procedures. Patients benefit from less trips to the hospital, lower infection rate, lower radiation exposure and faster recovery times.

Also new to the heart program is the first FDA approved mechanical thrombectomy system. Using nitinol mesh disks and large lumen aspiration catheters, the procedure removes blood clots in the lungs or legs, which if left untreated, could cause further damage to the lungs, legs and even the heart.

"With the introduction of the Inari clot removal system, we can restore blood flow without the use of blood thinners, reducing the bleeding risk to the patient and providing better outcomes," says Dr. Dan McGowan, Medical Director, Invasive Cardiology and on staff at Good Samaritan for more than 25 years.

"It’s incredible the advancements heart care has made in the last 30 years. What hasn’t changed is our mission to heal hearts with the latest advancements possible and to do it close to home," says Roper.