Rock ‘n’ Roll saved Dean Pepicello’s life.
Pepicello, 59, was drumming with his band, Wicked Goose, on April 11 at the Hose Company 27 Social Club and Restaurant in Harborcreek Township.
Though the longtime township supervisor didn’t realize it at first, he was also suffering a heart attack. His left anterior descending coronary artery, the one known as the “widow maker,” was becoming 100% blocked with plaque.
“Before that night, the only symptom I had was if I really exerted myself playing hockey or hiking, I’d have some minor chest tightness,” said Pepicello, who is also known for being a longtime public address announcer for the Erie SeaWolves and Erie Otters.
“Certainly nothing to indicate a heart attack. I am relatively fit with no history of heart problems and really none in my family history, though I do have borderline high cholesterol and blood pressure.”
As Pepicello kept the beat through classic rock hits like Autograph’s “Turn Up the Radio,” his symptoms worsened.
His heart rate remained elevated past the usual opening song jitters and he felt warmer than usual. After the opening set, he talked with his friend Chris Parker, a Fairfield Volunteer Fire Department emergency medical technician who was on duty.
The volunteer fire department is located in the same East Lake Road building as the social club and restaurant.
“I took his vital signs and his heart rate was a little high, which threw up a red flag but it was not a major thing,” Parker said. “He just didn’t look right. He was pale.”
Pepicello attributed it to dehydration and was determined to finish the gig. As he played the second set, his heart rate continued to beat fast and pain developed in his left shoulder.
Bandmates even came to Pepicello between songs to see if he was OK.
“When we finished, I didn’t help take things down and put them away. I just went over and sat down,” Pepicello said. “My friends said I needed to get checked. Thank God they did, because I just wanted to go home and go to bed.”
‘It showed a STEMI’
Pepicello instead met again with Parker, who took his vitals in the back of a Fairfield ambulance and contacted an East County EMS paramedic.
The paramedic hooked Pepicello to a 12-lead electrocardiogram, a diagnostic tool used to detect heart attacks.
“It showed a STEMI,” Parker said, referring to a type of severe heart attack caused by a complete or near-complete artery blockage. “We asked Dean which hospital did he want to go to.”
Pepicello admitted he was in disbelief but remained in the ambulance, which then transported him to UPMC Hamot.
He went directly into the hospital’s heart catheterization lab, where cardiologist Dr. Gurjaipal Kang realized that Pepicello’s life was in danger.
“While he was drumming, his artery might have only been 50% or 60% blocked, but there was a plaque rupture and by the time he got to the ER it was 100% blocked,” Kang said. “He was in cardiogenic shock, where his heart couldn’t pump enough blood. His lungs were filled with fluid.”
Kang and his team located the blockage and placed a single stent near the beginning of the left anterior descending artery, restoring normal blood flow.
“Very quickly he improved,” Kang said.
Pepicello discharged after three days, returned to work April 22
Pepicello remained at Hamot for three days. He was placed on an assortment of medications to thin his blood, lower his cholesterol, reduce his blood pressure and remove extra fluid.
Kang said that although Pepicello suffered some damage to his heart, he should make a nearly complete recovery. He felt well enough to return to work April 22, though Pepicello jokingly said he is on “light duty” as a township supervisor.
He also plans to return in May to his seasonal duties with the SeaWolves.
Pepicello credits his friends at Hose Company 27 for insisting that he go to the hospital. Kang said that delaying treatment by even a few hours likely would have cost Pepicello his life.
“I’m still processing the fact that I had a heart attack,” said Pepicello, who is married to Michelle Pepicello, and the couple has one adult child, Michael. “I can’t imagine what my family would have gone through if I hadn’t made it. My father just passed away in October.”
