IN Ross Township Winter 2016 | Page 5

Allegheny Health Network’s Allegheny General Hospital Expertise and dedication guides Allegheny General Hospital staff through unprecedented morning At 3:30 a.m. on March 8, the first aortic dissection patient arrived at Allegheny General Hospital (AGH) needing a type A aortic dissection. Cardiac surgeon Stephen Bailey, MD, and a team of medical personnel had been on call, and were already preparing for surgery. Preparations weren’t underway for just one patient. At the same time, in an event that no one at AGH had ever seen before, two other patients with the same rare medical problem were on their way and also in desperate need of life saving surgery. Staff at AGH put into motion a massive, coordinated response to care for all three patients simultaneously. Dr. Bailey had called his fellow cardiac surgeons,