 | Dr. Francie Ekengren is Wesley Medical Center's chief medical officer and medical director for the emergency department at Wesley. She can be reached at francie.ekengren@wesleymc.com. Wesley has the only accredited Chest Pain Center in the region, and uses the Biosite system as part of its cardiac care in the emergency department. |
Health & Medicine
2005-11-01 16:19:00
Signals of a heart attack
: What are the warning signs of a heart attack?
ANSWER: While everyone can experience a heart attack in different ways, the American Heart Assoc-iation offers this de-scription: an uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes or goes away and comes back. Signs of a heart attack can also include an uncomfortable feeling in the upper body, including the arms, back, jaw or stomach. Sometimes patients have difficulty breathing, begin sweating or feel light-headed or nauseous.If you think you're having a heart attack, don't waste time. Call 911 immediately.Once a patient gets to a hospital the coordination of care between the EMS professionals and the hospital is an important first step. Accredited Chest Pain Centers work to reduce heart attack deaths through a system that reduces the time between when a patient is first seen and treated. It is important for personnel to be trained and meet certain competencies, and the hospital itself must have design and technology that allows quick movement and response. Among the improvements important for a hospital to have is a cardiac alert system that is activated as soon as a patient is diagnosed in the emergency room. This can provide easier communication between labs, cardiac care units and other locations within a hospital and reduce the all-important response time. In addition, a recent new technology called a "Biosite Triage Cardiac System" can test blood at a patient's bedside. The blood test looks at certain "markers," which are elevated when heart muscle is damaged. The difference is a bedside test that takes 15 minutes versus one that could take 40 minutes or longer. For patients suffering from a heart attack, these steps improve their chances of not only surviving, but returning to a normal life once their recovery is complete. With heart attacks, fast response is vital. For people suffering a heart attack, the first hour is critical. Seconds count, which is why hospitals and emergency response teams consistently look for ways to reduce the time it takes to respond to and treat a patient in crisis. New technology and improved management techniques once a patient enters a hospital are among two of the recent developments that improve the chances of surviving a heart attack.
