Wireless Communication Helps Treat Oklahoma Heart Attacks

A new wireless communications system can speed the time between the onset of heart attack symptoms and hospital treatment, and hopefully prevent deaths, medical officials said Tuesday.

Electrocardiogram readings and other vital data now can be sent en route from Emergency Medical Services Authority ambulances to Integris Baptist Medical Center?s new Naifeh Families Chest Pain Center and even to doctors at home.

Using the technology gives doctors and their staffs more time to prepare for the patient?s arrival while communicating with paramedics. ?Time is your enemy when you?re having a heart attack. The longer it takes to start treatment, the more damage is done and the less likely you are to survive. That?s why it?s imperative to seek the fastest care possible,? said Dr. Charles Bethea, chief medical officer at Integris Baptist Heart Hospital in Oklahoma City.

Bethea said the system will send EKG details and other vital information to an on-call cardiologist at home, where the doctor will determine the seriousness of illness and meet the patient at Baptist.

Once at Baptist, doctors can locate where a clot exists in a heart artery. Often, a balloon-tipped catheter is used to restore the blood flow to the heart, officials said.

An hour should be the maximum time between a heart attack patient arriving at the chest pain center and the coronary artery being unclogged, Bethea said.

Having that 60-minute standard, the Oklahoma City cardiologist said, could reduce heart attack deaths by as much as 300 percent.

Timely heart treatment, he said, also reduces damage caused by a cardiac event. ?You can?t undo the damage,? he said.

A badly damaged heart, in fact, could lead to another heart attack, he said.

Bethea said friends and relatives should call 911 and not try to drive a heart attack patient to the hospital.

The Naifeh Families Chest Pain Center at Baptist is one of five centers nationwide designated as having all the necessary tools and know how to clear coronary artery blockages in a timely fashion, Bethea said.

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