Fruit Farmer Calls Cardiac Care an Eye-Opening Experieince
Greg Prillwitz
Jan, 2015
Physicians: Jerome Kuhnlein, MD; Kourosh Baghelai, MD
When Greg Prillwitz suffered his first heart attack in 2013, he believed his best options for high-quality care would be in cities an hour or more away from his home in Eau Claire. So he went to a more-distant facility rather than nearby Lakeland Health.
That perspective changed in August 2014, when Prillwitz—who’d had a stent implanted in his heart following the first incident—suffered a second heart attack. His wife, Karen, said she knew Greg’s condition was “much worse” than it had been the first time. She called an ambulance to have Greg taken to Lakeland.
The couple couldn’t be more pleased with the decision.
From the moment the ambulance arrived and whisked him away, with Karen following in her car, Greg sensed he was in good hands.
“My wife said by the time she parked and was in the hospital, they were already working on me,” Prillwitz said.
The Lakeland team, led by cardiologist, Jerome Kuhnlein, MD, began an angioplasty procedure to open an obstructed artery. When it was done, Greg said the doctor took time to explain, in layman’s terms, what had happened and what would happen next.
After four days to allow his heart to rest, a team led by cardiothoracic surgeon Kourosh Baghelai, MD, performed a triple-bypass. It wasn’t long before Greg was on the road to recovery, and singing the praises of the Lakeland.
“The experience was an eye-opener,” Greg said. “I did not meet one person there—from the doctors to the nurses, to food service workers and the person wheeling you into your room—who did not do their jobs well.”
Karen agrees. “They did an exceptional and fine job with him from start to finish,” she said.
Karen said the care provided at Lakeland allowed her to divide her attention between her recovering husband and the couple’s fruit farm, which employs more than 60 workers and produces everything from peaches and cherries to blueberries.
“There was not one time that I was uncomfortable,” Karen said. “I was never afraid to leave him there at night, and that’s very important.”
Greg said life as business owners make the Prillwitz family more aware of how workers approach their jobs. The working atmosphere at Lakeland Health? Unmistakably positive.
“I know when people enjoy their jobs,” he said. “It just shines through.”
And what about the competency of the personnel at Lakeland?
“It was just the best care ever,” Greg said. “They’re second to none.”