The Heart Institute of Doylestown Hospital is among the best in the nation for rapidly and effectively stopping a heart attack in progress with emergency angioplasty. Patients entering the Emergency Department (ED) who are found to be having a heart attack are quickly taken to the cath lab, where this life-saving procedure is performed. Should the patient require emergency open-heart surgery, a full cardiac surgical team is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Angioplasty is Best
Major studies in the 1990s established the superiority of emergency angioplasty over clot-busting drugs (also called thrombolytic drugs) for heart attack victims arriving at hospital emergency rooms. Clot-busting drugs dissolve blood clots that block an artery, opening the artery and restoring blood flow. However, these studies showed that clot-busting drugs are only about 60 percent reliable in opening blocked arteries, while angioplasty is in the 90-95 percent range.
Get Me to the ED on Time!
When a heart attack strikes, minutes matter. According to national standards, heart attack victims with a blocked artery should have an angioplasty within 90 minutes of arriving at the ED -- and they should arrive at the ED as soon as possible after the onset of symptoms. With quick action, there is less damage to the heart muscle, fewer complications, and faster recovery. And less heart damage means better quality of life after the heart attack.
Medical experts measure the quality of heart attack care with a statistic labeled "Door-to-Balloon" time: the number of minutes it takes from the time a heart attack patient enters the emergency room until an angioplasty balloon is inflated in the cath lab, opening the blocked artery and ending the heart attack. Doylestown Hospital's Door-to-Balloon time is consistently superior to national averages, and well below the suggested benchmark of 90 minutes. For the latest statistics on heart attack care at Doylestown Hospital, download our Heart Attack Quality Report.
Know the Warning Signs of a Heart Attack
Warning signs of a heart attack can be different for men and women, but there is one common truth for everyone: If you think you're having a heart attack, call 911 or go to the Emergency Department of the nearest hospital immediately.
Men Pressure, squeezing, or discomfort in the center of the chest that spreads to the neck, shoulder, or jaw. Chest pain described above is sometimes accompanied by lightheadedness, fainting, sweating, nausea, or shortness of breath.
Women Unusual fatigue, nausea, dizziness, back pain, discomfort in the lower chest or upper abdomen, and shortness of breath. Sometimes chest pain will occur.
