Kelly Curtis has worked as a registered nurse for Kettering Health (KH) for about seven years, and she’s spent the past five in the emergency department at Kettering Health Troy. She’s also an active member of the Elks Lodge, the setting for an unforgettable reunion in November.

“I was there with some nurse friends just hanging out,” Kelly said, “and this gentleman came over and put his hand on my shoulder and he said, ‘I’m sure you don’t remember me, but you saved my life back in July when I was in the emergency room.’” 

“I kind of looked up, and I was like, ‘oh,’ and he said, ‘my name is Jeff Koopman, and my wife recognized you.”

A day to remember

Koopman, 68, recovering from knee surgery, woke up July 15 ready to settle in with his first cup of coffee. Shortly afterward, his lip began to swell. As it worsened, his wife, Jane, consulted with their daughter-in-law Julie Koopman, who recommended a trip to the emergency department at KH Troy.

“They were thinking that maybe it was a bug bite or something, obviously some sort of reaction, but not knowing what it was,” said Julie, a clinical nurse manager at KH Troy.

Jeff wasn’t really concerned about the swelling. That would soon change.

As he talked with the doctor, “we started rattling off the medicines I’m on, and I told him Lisinopril. And he says, ‘we’re done and we’re stopping right here,’” Jeff said. “So, he explains a little bit what could possibly be happening, a reaction to the Lisinopril. The doctor had his thumb and his finger on my throat, and he explained to me that if you go into something where your throat’s going to possibly close up, we want you over here in case we have to cut you (perform a surgical airway), but we think we can calm this before it happens.”

Urgent actions by the doctor followed the exam, and the last thing Jeff remembered was the nurse starting an intravenous line. 

Snapping into action

Because Dr. Tyler Pierce and nurses Kelly, Caroline Kress, and Christina McKamey acted fast, Jeff didn’t need a surgical airway, or a cricothyrotomy. A cricothyrotomy means cutting into the neck to create a breathing passage. Intubation doesn’t require surgery. Their quick call made all the difference.

“While you are deciding whether to perform a cricothyrotomy, the patient is not breathing, which can lead to brain injury from lack of oxygen,” said Dr. Scaff, currently an Air Force-enlisted doctor who works as an emergency physician across the KH system. “It is also extremely distressing for the patient, who is often awake and suffocating, which can cause emotional trauma and post-traumatic stress. I cannot overemphasize that cricothyrotomy is a last-resort option, used only when all other methods fail.”

Following intubation, Jeff was airlifted to KH Dayton, where he would finish his treatment. He was released July 18.

Back from the brink

“My family was scared to death, and they thought this is it,” Jeff said. “When I heard the doctor go, ‘it’s closing,’ that’s when I knew this was serious, and they got the tube in before it closed. I mean literally seconds before they’d had to cut my neck and then stick a tube in that way.

“They took care of me. I mean, it was just an experience I wish nobody would go through, but when I went through it, it was a very comfortable feeling that I was being treated that way.”

And Kelly is glad she can see Jeff at the Elks on a regular basis.

“Turned out in December, I ended up initiating his daughter and grandson as Elks members,” Kelly said. “We continue to see each other at the Elks Lodge regularly, and his daughters and family were there at the initiation, and they came up to me and they all remembered me.”