Most drivers get a sinking feeling when their cars clunk into crater-like potholes.
But one pothole did a passenger a favor when the ambulance he was in struck it, according to first responders.
Members of the Gretna Volunteer Fire Department on Monday were taking a 59-year-old man suffering chest pain to the hospital, a Sarpy County 911 dispatcher said.
The patient also had an abnormally high heart rate. While en route to Lakeside Hospital, the ambulance hit a pothole. The jolt returned the patient’s heart rate to normal, said Gretna Fire Chief Rod Buethe.
A tweet describing the dispatch report got a lot of attention on social media and had people wondering: Is that even possible?
CHI Health emergency physician Dr. Peter Daher says yes. Although he had never heard of a pothole doing the trick.
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“That’s a new one for the books, I guess,” he said.
Daher, who wasn’t involved in the pothole case, said the patient may have had supraventricular tachycardia. It’s a rapid heart rate that can be caused by a faulty electrical system in the heart, medication, stimulants, excessive caffeine or thyroid disease.
Daher said that sometimes being startled or jolted will revert those patients’ heart rates to normal.
Some patients have found that things like bearing down, coughing, gagging or sticking their head in ice-cold water will help, Daher said.
He has seen a patient drop back to a normal heart rate after being stuck with a needle in the emergency room. Things like a needle stick, cough or gag can cause a reaction that makes the heart slow down, and patients may feel faint, Daher said.
“Just the scare of hitting a pothole probably could have done it, too,” Daher said. “I wouldn’t doubt that was possible.”
But patients should seek medical attention. Doctors and specialists can use medication to treat the symptoms.
A CHI spokeswoman was not able to say if the patient had been discharged from the hospital.
17 rare and unusual health stories out of Omaha
One rare disease left an Omaha doctor eating a shakelike formula to supplement her diet. A friend said it tasted like cat food. An Omaha man woke up after his family took him off life support. And a Lincoln teen is allergic to almost everything.
Check out the stories on their unusual ailments and sometimes equally unusual treatment plans.
Matthew Eledge and husband Elliot Dougherty plan to explain her out-of-the-ordinary birth to their daughter in terms she can understand: that her grandmother furnished the garden where she grew, and that her aunt, Lea Yribe, generously supplied the seeds.
One pothole did a passenger a favor when the ambulance he was in struck it, according to first responders. Gretna firefighters were taking a man suffering chest pain and a high heart rate to the hospital. While en route to Lakeside Hospital, the ambulance hit a pothole. The jolt returned the patient’s heart rate to normal.
Thought to be brain dead, doctors took former Creighton Bluejays play-by-play announcer T. Scott Marr off life support. Before his family settled on a funeral home, they decided to see their dad one more time. When they got there, he was awake and speaking.
Karla Perez was 22 weeks pregnant when she suffered a catastrophic brain bleed and was declared brain dead. Her unborn child was alive, but wouldn't survive delivery. So family and doctors kept her on life support. Angel was born eight weeks later.
Darnisha Ladd never imagined Snapchat would help save her life after she suffered a stroke. But needing a precise timeline of events, doctors and family relied on a post on the phone app and were able to give her a needed medication in time.
Lindsey and Derek Teten's triplets are one in a million. Literally. The Nebraska City couple's three daughters, born in late June 2017, are identical and were conceived without fertility treatments. The girls were the second set of spontaneous triplets born at Methodist Women's Hospital. The first set, also girls, was born in 2015.
What makes Jamey Dougall's health story unusual is his treatment plan. Dougall, who's legally blind, uses a special pair of glasses to see. He's seen his wife Kandice, his two daughters, and now, his favorite college football team — the Huskers.
Doctors diagnosed the paralysis that was creeping up Justin Chenier's legs as Guillain-Barre syndrome. It would become so serious that the Omaha man would nearly lose consciousness while screaming because of the pain. The syndrome was triggered by West Nile virus.
Kenze Messman's been diagnosed with several chronic illnesses. Sometimes her heart rate climbs, seizures send her to the floor and migraines leave her in the dark. And one of the ailments causes the 17-year-old to have allergic reactions to almost everything.
The skin on Sharan Bryson's leg was black from lack of circulation. She felt nothing but a sharp, stabbing pain. The leg was dead, and her best option was amputation. Bryson bounced back and put her hard work to the test by running a 5K.
Chase Tiemann has had numerous surgeries in his young life, including the amputation of his left arm. The Omaha boy has a condition that causes tumors — sometimes benign, sometimes cancerous — to form on his body. To boost his spirits after amputation, the Papillion Fire Department named Chase an honorary firefighter.
Wesley Woods battled heart disease for 20 years. He'd racked up nine heart attacks, multiple surgeries and one heart transplant. He was tired of hospitals. Tired of chest pain. Tired of feeling tired. Woods was lucky — he received a second transplant.
Urmi Basu was set to walk across the stage to receive her doctorate. But five days before the ceremony, the then-30-year-old suffered a major stroke. It left her paralyzed on her right side and struggling to speak. After three years of intense rehab, she returned the the University of Nebraska Medical Center for graduation.
Amber Kudrna wasn't sure she'd be able to have a child of her own. After two kidney transplants, doctors gave the Omaha woman a laundry list of potential pregnancy complications. Kudrna and husband Adam weighed their options and, in September 2018, welcomed a baby boy.
Sue Venteicher started what would be the largest single-hospital living-donor kidney transplant chain in Nebraska history. Nine living donors gave kidneys to nine recipients at the Nebraska Medical Center.
Joe Nolan couldn't take his son James' pain away. But he could find a way to share it. Nolan got a tattoo that arched across his head, just like his son's scar. James was born with a handful of ailments, including one that regularly requires his skull to be reshaped.
Dr. Jennifer Harney used to eat pizza sans meat or cheese. She couldn't add milk to her coffee. She had to choke down a shakelike formula to supplement her diet. She was diagnosed with a rare, genetic condition after birth. But thanks to a new therapy, she's been able to eat things she never thought possible.
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