12 Bringing health care news to your home Caregivers brought Millard to the cath lab right away and prepared him for the procedure. Patel arrived within 10 minutes and inserted a catheter into his wrist, which allowed him to thread a smaller plastic tube to his heart. He was able to use an angiogram (a medical imaging technique) to find the area that was blocked, insert a guide wire with a balloon into the tube to the blockage, then briefly inflate the balloon to open up the blockage. After the initial brief balloon dilation, which restored the blood flow, Patel replaced the balloon with three stents (metal coils loaded on a balloon). He then placed the stents at the site of the blockage, where they kept the blocked artery open to maintain the free flow of blood. Finally, Patel removed the catheter, balloon and guide wire. “The reason Terry did so well was because he came to get treatment in a timely fashion,” said Patel. “Many patients who get chest pain think it’s heartburn or something else, and they delay coming in to the emergency room. But in Terry’s case, we were able to open up the blockage rapidly.” While patients might be hesitant to see a doctor because they’re not sure if their symptoms are bad enough for a heart attack, Patel said, “It’s better to be wrong than late.” A full recovery Millard’s heart attack was the night of April 6, and he was home by April 8. Now, he thanks his lucky stars that Columbus has a cardiac catheterization lab right in town. “The alternative was going to be a helicopter ride to Omaha,” he said. “Instead of having that care right there and being able to reduce the damage to my heart, I would have been waiting for a pilot to take me to Omaha.” As a result, Millard’s “door-to-balloon” time would have been more than two hours, rather than less than 30 minutes. The week after he returned home, he came back to the hospital for cardiac rehabilitation to help his heart become stronger. Even though he has technically graduated from cardiac rehab, he still attends sessions to become stronger and more heart-healthy. Millard, who is a new Columbus Community Hospital Foundation board member, has now seen firsthand the importance of having high-level medical facilities in his hometown. “I’m really fortunate that Dr. Patel was there and able to treat me,” he said. The right heart care in the right place (continued from page 11)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2MTU5NA==