11 columbushosp.org At the emergency room, Millard told the receptionist he was having chest pains. He was immediately sent to a room where a caregiver performed an electrocardiogram (EKG) on him. An EKG is a quick test that records the electrical signals in the heart. “In big-city hospitals, there are sometimes delays because their emergency rooms are so busy,” said Alex Kazos, MD, the emergency room doctor who treated Millard. “But at CCH, we can get an EKG within two minutes of the patient walking in the door. I’m usually at the bedside waiting for the printout of the EKG.” Sure enough, the test showed that Millard was having an ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), which is a type of severe heart attack in which the coronary artery is completely blocked. This means oxygen-rich blood is unable to reach the heart, which could result in death if not treated. Treatment from the experts The moment Millard’s EKG came back with abnormal results, it set in motion a sequence of events that ensured doctors could treat him very quickly. Caregivers contacted Patel, the on-call cardiologist, and they notified the rest of the cardiac catheterization team that they needed to prepare the cath lab right away. “With a STEMI, time is muscle,” said Patel. “The longer we take to open up that blockage, the more damage the heart sustains.” The reason Terry did so well was because he came to get treatment in a timely fashion. Many patients who get chest pain think it’s heartburn or something else, and they delay coming in to the emergency room.” — Nikunjkumar Patel, MD (continued on page 12) Terry Millard, left, receives a follow-up visit from Patel at Columbus Cardiology Clinic.
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