Newswise — Frank Masellis wrapped up his day as owner of Morris Meats butcher shop in Maywood and was on his way to a dinner at a restaurant when the nausea hit. “I had to pull over on River Road and was throwing my guts up,” he remembers. “I called my shop and told them to send someone to come get me and take me to Loyola.”
A colleague drove him to Loyola’s emergency room. “I just kept saying that I was in too much pain,” he says. “I passed out and when I woke up in the intensive care unit, I saw my mother, felt the return of the pain and asked her to get them to knock me out, it was so bad.”
The next time Mr. Masellis woke up was three weeks later.
“I had been placed in a medically induced coma,” he says. Masellis had been diagnosed with acute pancreatitis aggravated by gallstones and underwent emergency surgery at Loyola. “My abdomen wound was open and I couldn’t eat or drink and used a tube to breathe. I was alive.”
The pancreas secretes enzymes to digest food and also hormones to regulate energy. Each year, an estimated 210,000 people are admitted to the hospital with acute pancreatitis. Pancreatitis is the inflammation or infection of the pancreas.
Pancreatitis can be a highly treatable condition but when complicated by other infections, is life-threatening. “Mr. Masellis was given a 50 to 60 percent chance of dying because his pancreatitis was complicated by erosion into his splenic vein,” says John Santaniello, MD, FACS, trauma surgeon at Loyola University Health System. “When your condition is that serious, minutes count and Mr. Masellis had 24/7 care at Loyola, from surgery to recovery.” In America, pancreatitis is typically caused by alcoholism or gallstones. Mr. Masellis rarely drank alcohol and suffered acute pancreatitis exacerbated by gallstones. Gallstones are hardened, pellets of bile that cause inflammation in the pancreas as the pass through the bile duct.
Santaniello, a professor at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine specializes in acute care surgery.
“Mr. Masellis was being treated non-operatively for his pancreatitis, which is the standard. However, one morning his hemoglobin level had dropped significantly. A CT scan showed that his pancreatitis had eroded into his splenic vein, and this needed emergency surgery. His operation entailed ligating his splenic vein, and removing a portion of pancreas along with his spleen, “explained Santaniello. “Mr. Masellis’ abdomen was left open after the operation and he was returned to the operating room 24 to 48 hours later after his body had recovered from the stress of the first operation, to make sure no other organs had been damaged.”
Mr. Masellis weighed 237 pounds at the time of his attack but his weight dropped to 146 as he recovered. “I am now back at the 200 mark and that is where I want to be,” he says. “I am back making deliveries in the truck, working in the store and just celebrated 30 years in business.”
“The Masellis family knew the dire statistics and wanted a medical team who would do everything possible to keep Frank alive,” says Santaniello. “Loyola made it happen by partnering with the Masellis family by offering them our medical expertise and they did their part in being upbeat and following the care plan.”
Complicated surgeries are commonplace for Loyola University Medical Center. “As a level 1 trauma center, Loyola is equipped to handle anything and everything whether it is immediate access to life-saving specialists or advanced technologies and supplies,” says Santaniello, who has worked at Loyola for 15 years, after serving in the US Marine Corps and then attending college and medical school. “Mr. Masellis needed many units of blood for transfusions during surgery, and whereas 10 units would wipe out a community hospital supply, at Loyola that number is minor since we are equipped for all emergencies that come our way.
Mr. Masellis is grateful for the expert care he received. “Your surgeon is your main man and without Dr. Santaniello, I wouldn’t be here,” he said. “He is like family.”
Mr. Masellis was born in Italy and most of his family is still there. “Many of my relatives are doctors and Dr. Santaniello took the time to call them and explain my condition to them in Italian,” he said. “No one would ever do something like that, but Dr. Santaniello did. My wife adores him.”
Dr. Santaniello has cared for other members of the Masellis family and makes a point of stopping in to the local store to see his former patient. “He loves Loyola like we all do,” he says. “And he and his family will always be a part of our Loyola family.”
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