Frank&LlenCare

Wellstar’s ongoing commitment to improving patients’ health and wellness was on full display when more than 100 cardiovascular healthcare providers gathered for the third annual Cardiovascular Quality Forum last spring. The forum, which was hosted at Wellstar Kennestone Regional Medical Center, serves as a way to share best practices across the Wellstar Center for Cardiovascular Care in order to enhance patient care systemwide.

“All of our Wellstar cardiovascular programs across the system are constantly working to improve clinical processes in order to improve patient outcomes, whether it be reducing mortalities, decreasing complications, reducing length of stay, etc.,” said Wellstar Quality Manager Dave Bloomquist. “Our annual Cardiovascular Quality Forum allows us to share the work being done at each individual hospital so all Wellstar hospitals can benefit from each other’s improvement efforts.”

The centerpiece of the forum is the poster competition, an idea borrowed from the American College of Cardiology’s annual Quality Summit. Each Wellstar hospital is encouraged to share its cardiovascular improvement successes in the form of a poster submission. Submissions can come from any stakeholder across the care continuum, including inpatient, outpatient, procedural, wellness and post-acute care areas. The posters are then judged by a panel of physicians using an objective scoring tool.

“After three years of holding this event, our physician leaders are still quite eager to devote the time necessary to score the ever-increasing number of posters,” Bloomquist said. “When we held the first Cardiovascular Quality Forum, we had 12 poster submissions. Last year we received 20 submissions, and this year we received 32 submissions.”

The posters represent the hard work from Wellstar teams to enhance and sustain a culture of high-level cardiovascular quality. This year, the top five posters belonged to Wellstar Kennestone, Wellstar MCG Health, Wellstar North Fulton, Wellstar Paulding and Wellstar West Georgia Medical Centers. Wellstar West Georgia earned the top overall score for its poster on decreasing telemetry calls, or the overuse of cardiac monitoring.

Additional highlights of the 2024 forum included a keynote address delivered by Mayo Clinic Cardiologist Dr. Abhishek Deshmukh and an awards presentation that honored Wellstar Cobb Medical Center with the overall cardiovascular quality award.

For the first time, the event also recognized outstanding provider leadership in quality. Wellstar Kennestone Cardiothoracic Surgery Physician Assistant Deleen Huff received the APP quality leader award, while Wellstar North Fulton Cardiologist Dr. Suresh Ramamurthy received the physician quality leader award. The awards are based on nominations, which may be submitted by any individual from any hospital.

“It was quite moving to read the nominations for physician quality leaders,” Bloomquist shared. “There was so much love and respect shown for our physicians by their clinical teams that it brought tears to my eyes as I read each nomination.”

Tears also flowed during the forum when a patient who survived a heart attack took the stage to share his testimonial alongside the Wellstar care team members who treated him.

“As we do each year, we invited a patient to join us to tell their story and recognize their Wellstar care team,” said Bloomquist. “There was not a dry eye in the room when the patient and his family told their journey at Wellstar—which ended with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD)—and thanked his care team for their love and care.”

As the Cardiovascular Quality Forum continues to grow, Wellstar patients will benefit greatly from care teams who are dedicated to improvement through collaboration. Bloomquist noted that the forum has been increasingly recognized by system leaders, including a number of hospital presidents who attend.

Looking ahead, Bloomquist said he is eager to see even more heart care leaders acknowledged for their contributions to the service line. “We will continue to grow the list of cardiovascular stakeholders that will be recognized for their improvement efforts to include inpatient nurses and EMS partners,” he shared.

The next Cardiovascular Quality Forum will be held March 2025.

It’s not every day that a young man survives a nearly fatal car accident and takes a victory walk through the hospital hallways to thank his care team. After suffering a rare cricotracheal separation that left Chris LoCurto unable to effectively breathe on his own, that’s exactly what happened.

Coordinated EMS & hospital care set Chris up for survival

At 22, Chris was in a car accident that caused serious injuries he wasn’t sure he’d be able to survive. He fractured his jaw, clavicle and spine and his lung collapsed. His most life-threatening injury was a tracheal separation—his airway was cut in half.

EMS professionals arrived on the scene. Although Chris was talking and walking, they could hear something abnormal in his breathing. The paramedics coordinated care with Wellstar Kennestone Regional Medical Center so the trauma team would be assembled and ready for Chris upon arrival.

“I was trying to breathe but I wasn’t getting air,” Chris said. “Going to the hospital, I was honestly thinking I wasn’t going to make it.”

How the trauma team put Chris on the road to recovery

Led by Dr. Daniella Kington, the trauma team was waiting when Chris arrived. Immediately, they intubated him so he could breathe. They used a bronchoscope, a special camera, to see inside the airway to diagnose the injury and learn important details to plan treatment.

Chris was then put on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). This highly-advanced machine helps the heart, lungs or both heal after extreme trauma or organ failure.

“For Chris, ECMO supported his breathing and oxygenation during the intricate surgical repair of his trachea,” said Jamie Van Ness, MBA, BSN, TCRN, director of Trauma Services at Wellstar Kennestone.

Now a Level I Trauma Center, the hospital is one of a few in Georgia that offers ECMO.

Dr. Nelson May, a head and neck trauma surgeon, was assisted by Dr. Nicholas Mildenhall to perform Chris’ tracheal repair. The surgery required the surgeons to reattach Chris’ larynx to his trachea. Then they placed a tracheostomy tube so Chris would be able to breathe, swallow and talk again.

To allow his airway to heal, Chris was sedated for a few weeks. When he woke, his injuries had been treated but he was fighting pneumonia. He was transferred to intensive care and his condition improved within a week.

Throughout his time in the hospital, Chris received the right treatment at the right time thanks to Wellstar’s multidisciplinary approach to care.

“Coming to Wellstar Kennestone made a difference in Chris' outcome,” said trauma surgeon Dr. Ginger Justice, a physician who got to know Chris on her daily rounds. “He came to a trauma center that had all the resources to care for him—pretty much from the moment he hit the Emergency Department to discharge.”&

Providing specialized trauma care

When Chris was a patient, all the specially trained doctors and advanced technology were available to help him recover from his life-threatening injuries. Shortly after, Wellstar Kennestone was verified by the American College of Surgeons as a Level I Trauma Center, the highest level of trauma care offered.

“The first and most crucial piece [to Level I Trauma Center verification] is that we have all the different subspecialists available in one place to provide full care for our patients,” Dr. Kington said. “If a patient comes in, no matter where they’re injured, we have a subspecialist who can help with all those different injuries.”

That was exactly what Chris needed. In addition to helping people get trauma care fast, Wellstar Kennestone is home to a residency program, training the next generation of trauma doctors.

For about a month and a half, Chris recovered in the trauma unit, ICU and intensive inpatient rehabilitation. In Wellstar Kennestone’s inpatient rehab, specially trained speech, occupational and physical therapists create a specialized care plan to help each patient achieve their goals and get back to living life.

Compassionate nurses made a lasting impact on Chris

While the trauma team saved his life, Chris credits his nurses with keeping him motivated.

“Every nurse I met who came in, we ended up forming some sort of relationship,” Chris said. “They took care of me like their own. That’s not in their job title, nobody asked them to do that, which is why I’m so grateful. They went above and beyond what they get paid to do to make me better physically and mentally.”

For example, one nurse found out about Chris’ love of aviation and brought him to see an air ambulance helicopter. Another nurse shared his love for hunting and planned a reunion for Chris and his hunting companion, his dog Maddux.



“While the future was kind of unforeseen, the nurses connected with me,” Chris said. “I got to spend some time with my dog too. It was huge for my mental well-being.”

Coming back to say thanks

Chris defied the odds by walking, talking and being able to eat. Today, he’s taking steps toward a full recovery. While learning to live with a tracheostomy tube, he’s working out and increasing his cardio exercise. He spends a lot of time walking Maddux.

“I’m slowly introducing myself to normalcy again,” he said.

A crucial part of recovery was visiting the hospital and saying “thank you” to his care team.

“He and his family walked in,” Dr. Justice remembered. “I saw Chris in normal street clothes, walking with his sunglasses on. He said, ‘Hey, I’m doing great!’ To see this young man with so much potential have a good outcome was very inspiring.”

Chris made sure to thank as many care team members as possible. “Their motivation and drive to get me going is without a doubt one of the reasons I’m moving around as good as I am today,” he said.

Dr. May added, “It was gratifying to see the real-life implication of Chris’ care and to be able to participate in getting him to where he is today.”

A bright future thanks to expert trauma care

Overall, without the first-rate trauma response of Chris’ medical team at Wellstar Kennestone, he would not be where he is today—back in the wilderness with Maddux.

“The coordination of many different teams and doctors with different areas of expertise in different phases of his care allowed him to be where he is today,” Dr. May said.

Wellstar Kennestone provided the advanced care Chris needed with excellent trauma services. Now with a Level I Trauma accreditation, the trauma team can keep offering advanced care—and preparing the physicians of the future to do the same.

Learn more about Trauma Care at Wellstar.

Like most seniors, Ja’Quan Hart was very much looking forward to going off to college in the summer of 2023.

The Thomson, Ga., resident had just graduated high school and as a linebacker and tight end, helped lead his Thomson High School Bulldogs to win the Class AA State Championship.

“I had these big tackles, and I caught like an 89-yeard interception pass,” he said. “That was like my best game. We won state!”

Ja’Quan’s talent and skill on the football field—and his love of the game—earned him the opportunity to play for the University of Kansas with a full scholarship.

Unfortunately, life had other plans.

Amid packing for school and booking his flights, Ja’Quan learned from a routine sports physical that he had an irregularity in his heart that could be life-threatening.

That irregularity turned out to be a leaky aortic valve—and an abrupt end to his aspirations of a college football career.

“Blood was flowing back into my heart. It wasn’t going all the way through,” Ja’Quan explained.

In a healthy heart, leaflets between the left and right ventricles open to allow blood to flow through the heart one way and then close fully to keep blood from flowing back into the heart. In a condition like Ja’Quan’s, the leaflets do not close all the way and blood does leak back into the heart.

For most people the treatment for a leaky aortic valve involves a valve replacement. But a valve replacement now will often require another replacement surgery at some point in the future, and probably more than one, said Dr. Brian Bateson, a pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon and co-director of the adult congenital heart program at Wellstar MCG Health Medical Center. The younger the patient, the more potential surgeries the patient will need to have to replace the valves when they wear out.

Because Ja’Quan had not yet reached 20 years of age at the time of his care, a valve replacement would mean multiple surgeries over the course of his life.

The solution is a new device called the HAART ring that is affixed to the support structure of the aortic valve. This stabilizes the valve and allows for further repair of the leaflets themselves, meaning the valve can close properly and prevent leakage.

“If you’re using Ja’Quan’s own valve, keeping it in place and it functions, potentially he wouldn’t need another procedure again in his life because it’s still his own tissue. It’s not going to break down. Any prosthetic valve, whether it’s mechanical, bio-prosthetic will fail over time,” Dr. Bateson said. “Nothing’s better than what you’re born with.”

The HAART device is ideal for a young patient like Ja’Quan, but would also be a good treatment option for any person—pediatric or adult—with the same condition.

Ja’Quan spent three days in the hospital recovering from his surgery. Since, he has been slowly increasing his cardiovascular activity, such as walking, and following up with Dr. Bateson for regular checkups, who said he has been recovering very well.

Ja’Quan said he plans to continue to play sports, but will need to be more selective about the sports he can play.

“I play basketball. I just won’t be playing contact sports (like football),” he said.

Though he said it was disappointing to have to change direction as far as playing college football is concerned, Ja’Quan hasn’t let it dampen his spirit. Instead of college football, he is now exploring the possibility of driving trucks with the intention of going into business for himself—as long as it isn’t too strenuous for his heart.

“I’m not going to give up. I’m going to regroup and keep going and find another path to being successful in life,” he said.