Malinovsky ended up at St. Vincent\u2019s, part of Hartford Healthcare,<\/a> only because his wife, Jill, insisted he go. Her insistence also is part of what saved Malinovsky\u2019s life.<\/p>\n \u201cLuckily, I\u00a0 listened,\u201d Malinovsky said.<\/p>\n Malinovsky said it all started when he had awoken with a bad cough, and, thinking he had bronchitis, he and Jill went to a walk-in clinic near his office. He was told he may have bronchitis and his blood oxygen level was probably a little low, and it might be a good idea to get checked and some oxygen at the emergency room, he said.<\/p>\n He said he didn\u2019t want to go, but he acquiesced to Jill\u2019s insistence.<\/p>\n In the emergency room, Malinovsky said, he was having \u201ca normal conversation with the\u201d staff there.<\/p>\n \u201cThen I went ahead and coded,\u201d he said, estimating his heart stopped working for 17 minutes.<\/p>\n Malinovsky, an engineer, said his memory of the next few hours are somewhat clouded.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is probably something I would not want to remember as a patient either,\u201d said Selter<\/a>, who credits an enormous team at St. Vincent\u2019s for Malinovsky\u2019s survival. \u201cI have to give our ER credit for thinking beyond an outside diagnosis\u201d [of possible bronchitis]. \u201cIt is very hard to shake that diagnosis.\u201d<\/p>\n Selter said testing showed that \u201cit really looked like he [Malinovsky] had a heart attack the day before\u201d and had not realized it. Many people do not have \u201cclassic symptoms\u201d of heart attacks, he said.<\/p>\n Over the course of the next 24 hours or so, with a damaged and weakened heart, Malinovsky developed heart failure, or cardiac arrest, Selter said.<\/p>\n Malinovsky required prolonged CPR and resuscitation, medication and more to revive him, Selter said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was all hands on deck,\u201d he said, noting the survival rate for heart failure<\/a>, or cardiac arrest, outside of a hospital setting is less than 10 percent.<\/p>\n Further, it is the kind of circumstance \u201cwhere we have to get in right away \u2026 We want to get an artery open and help preserve the heart muscle,\u201d Selter said.<\/p>\n In Malinovsky\u2019s case, that was not immediately possible.<\/p>\n The EKG shows the kind of heart issue Malinovsky was having, and it is \u201cthe kind we have to get in there,\u201d quickly, an ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, Selter said.<\/p>\n An ST segment elevation myocardial infarction is a severe emergency as it \u201carises from the occlusion of 1 or more coronary arteries,\u201d according to the National Institute of Health.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n As the team worked to get Malinovsky to the angioplasty suite and the point where they could fix his heart, and \u201cwe anticipated he would need mechanical supports,\u201d another cardiac arrest occurred and more CPR was needed. \u201cThis was a whole hospital village helping him here,\u201d Selter said.<\/p>\n Selter noted Malinovsky had artery problems, with plaque present, and one had ruptured. The team was able to put an Impella device<\/a> in place through Malinovsky\u2019s femoral artery. The device \u201ctakes over a lot of the work of his heart,\u201d Selter said.<\/p>\n When the team was able to get Malinovsky to the ICU, with the support of the Impella device, \u201cat the time then he was doing pretty well,\u201d Selter said.<\/p>\n Until the next day.<\/p>\n Malinovsky had the Impella device in place, had an open artery with the angioplasty and stent, and the team was hoping that with \u201call we have done, his heart will heal,\u201d but \u201cthe next day, Mark\u2019s numbers were not looking great\u2026,\u201d Selter said.<\/p>\n Over the course of a few hours, Malinovsky \u201cvery subtly was starting to drift down,\u201d and that was \u201ca general trend not in the way we wanted,\u201d Selter said. \u201cHis heart was struggling so much.\u201d<\/p>\n The decision was then made to upgrade him to a surgically implanted, different impella device, \u201cthe same general concept\u201d but a more supportive version, Selter said.<\/p>\n But \u201cat a point in time he just sort of stalled,\u201d the cardiologist said.<\/p>\n A decision had to be made.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is how we drill this \u2026 joint meetings with how to expedite this \u2014 we hit our limit,\u201d for supporting Malinovsky\u2019s heart, and it was time to talk transplant, Selter said.<\/p>\n Following discussions with the transplant team at Hartford Hospital,<\/a> Malinovsky was moved up to Hartford cardiac ICU, Selter said. Malinovsky noted he went by Lifestar from Bridgeport to Hartford.<\/p>\n That\u2019s when Hartford Hospital cardiac surgeon\u00a0 Dr. Suguru Ohira\u00a0<\/a> comes in.<\/p>\n \u201cThe patient was dying; Dr. Selter saved his life,\u201d Ohira said. \u201cAgain the patient was so ill; the initial care is really tough \u2014 some people are not able to make it to the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n But Malinovsky\u2019s heart function didn\u2019t recover, as sometimes medical management \u201cdoesn\u2019t work anymore, sometimes it does,\u201d Ohira said. For Malinovsky, that was a result of the extent of the damage, and for him that meant a need for a heart transplantation, Ohira said.<\/p>\n Malinovsky was placed on a list for transplantation and had to wait for a suitable donor, which can take weeks, Ohira said.<\/p>\n When they did the transplant, the new heart started working right away, Ohira said. They were able to remove the heart lung machine in the OR, he said.<\/p>\n![\"Jefferson-Seymour](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/HCC4.jpg\")
Hartford Hospital. (File photo)<\/p>\n
![\"Connecticut](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/thc-l-heartsaving-0326-02.jpg\")
Connecticut resident Mark Malinovsky survived a heart attack, heart failure and received a heart transplant. (Courtesy)<\/p>\n