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A life saving
transplant put
a firefighter
back on
the job
Round-the-clock expert attention, care and 01
support kept Dale Shippam going until a new
heart showed up
By Judy Gerstel
Growing up, Dale Shippam always easily, breathed harder, felt weak. get. They can’t be manufactured 02
knew what his future His family doctor with 3-D printers. They can’t be
was going to be. ordered from Amazon. And they “We had to get to the point where
diagnosed heart failure. can’t be created whole from stem he was well enough and strong
He was going to be a firefighter. “I had to get a pacemaker,” cells or other living tissues – at enough to have a transplant,”
But during six weeks in the least, not yet; although, a short explains Ms. Kozuszko.
Coronary Intensive Care Unit Mr. Shippam explains. “Then distance from Mr. Shippam’s room
(CICU) at the Peter Munk a defibrillator. Every time they were labs, where scientists were As critically ill as he was,
Cardiac Centre (PMCC), tried to control it, something working to make that happen. hovering between life and
the firefighter’s future, any else would happen.” death, Mr. Shippam was aware
future, was in grave doubt. But in Mr. Shippam’s room, it of what was happening.
“There were so many sirens Mr. Shippam was referred to was the applied science of keeping
outside,” he recalls, “and I was the PMCC because of problems a diseased heart beating that was “They were so attentive round-
lying in a bed, thinking, ‘I’m never with the defibrillator. He was told happening, hour by hour, second the-clock,” he recalls, “and
going to ride a fire truck again.’” he’d contracted a heart virus. by second, a race against the clock. friendly, on top of everything else.”
The best he could hope for, and
it was a long shot, was to live. A few days later, transferring “We worked very hard to He strongly believes, and tells
If you’d told him at the time that between units with his wife, maintain what little heart everyone who will listen, that “it
he’d be riding the truck again, Peggy, a former nurse, at his function there was,” explains was because of the care I received
trekking in Bhutan, climbing in side, he suffered a cardiac veteran CICU nurse Stella in this hospital that I was able to
Nepal, skiing to the North Pole arrest and was rushed to the Kozuszko, “constantly making
and the South Pole, he’d have CICU, where Dr. Heather Ross adjustments, minor, minor little
thought he was hallucinating from worked hard to keep him alive. changes, minute by minute.”
all the drugs dripping into him.
Mr. Shippam had been a “Dale was critically ill,” recalls The heart, says Ms. Kozuszko,
fit 47-year old firefighter Dr. Ross, Dr. Heather Ross, is responsible for what all the
in Thunder Bay. Cardiologist, Peter Munk Cardiac organs are doing – the kidneys,
“I was incredibly healthy,” Centre, and Medical Director, the lungs, the brain. A slight
he says. “I ran the Boston Cardiac Transplant Program, drop in urinary output or blood
Marathon. I never smoked. I Toronto General Hospital. “He pressure needs to be attended
controlled for risk factors.” had a very prolonged arrest, and to instantly. Monitoring fluids
There was no history of we had to return circulation. and devices is a priority.
cardiovascular disease We got it, we lost it; it was a
in his family. real battle. Dale’s body had “It’s a fine line, at that point,
But his body began to fail him. tried to actively die through in terms of monitoring,” says
What was happening to all the cardiac arrest,” she says. Ms. Kozuszko, “because in
energy and stamina that had seconds they could pass.”
fuelled this powerful six-foot “At that stage, I was incredibly
athlete in his prime? He tired sick,” Mr. Shippam says. “I was But there was a challenge
told I would never be able to for the highly trained, highly
leave the hospital without a heart skilled nurses and doctors
transplant. I would either get in the CICU beyond just
a new heart or die waiting.” keeping Mr. Shippam alive.
But new hearts are not easy to
50 Peter Munk Cardiac Centre
