(Photo: Paramedics with Mercy Air bring a heart attack victim to Palomar Hospital. Kenny Goldberg/KPBS )
If someone is having a heart attack, getting to the hospital quickly can mean the difference between life and death. Health officials say calling an ambulance is the smart move. But nearly half of all heart attack victims try to drive themselves to the hospital. And that can be a fatal mistake. KPBS Health Reporter Kenny Goldberg has the story.
On Christmas Day last year, Escondido resident John McVey just didn’t feel right.
John McVey: We’d gone hiking early in the morning out to Daley Ranch, and I hadn’t felt very good and had sort of a little tingling in my hands at that point.
So McVey went back home. Later that day, he started to have some chest pains. But he still didn’t think it was any big deal.
John McVey: Because I thought it was just bad indigestion.
McVey’s wife Sandy knew it was something much worse.
Sandy McVey: He was in a significant amount of distress. He had his fist sort of pressed against his chest, and I noticed he was grabbing his left shoulder. He became nauseous, he started vomiting. He was sweating profusely, which was very unusual. I’ll never forget these little beads of sweat all over face and his arms.
Still, the McVey’s weren’t sure if they should call an ambulance.
Sandy McVey: There was a moment where I thought, well maybe I ought to just put him in the car and drive him myself. And thank the Lord I didn’t, because the doctor told me when we were at the hospital that if I had done that, he would have been dead at the emergency room door.
Sandy called 9-1-1. As paramedics drove John McVey to the hospital, his heart stopped. Paramedics shocked his heart back to life. Then they radioed ahead and told the hospital to get ready for a heart attack patient.
Shortly after arrival, McVey was rushed up to the cath lab, where doctors opened up his blocked artery.
At Escondido’s Palomar Hospital, airborne paramedics bring in another heart attack patient. This person drove himself to a different hospital more than hour ago. That facility couldn’t perform an emergency angioplasty. So the patient was transported here.
Had he called an ambulance, the man would have already been treated. Instead, he’s lost some valuable time.
Dr. Patrick Leahy: The most critical time in terms of mortality of a heart attack is within the first hour when the artery blocks off. That’s when the highest mortality takes place, and the mortality is the result of arrhythmias.
Dr. Patrick Leahy is a cardiologist at Palomar Hospital. Arrhythmias are disturbances in the normal heart rhythm. Paramedics can restore the rhythm, before a patient suffers permanent damage.
Dr. Leahy says there’s another good reason to call 9-1-1: faster access to a clot busting treatment called a balloon angioplasty.
Palomar tracks the so-called door-to-balloon time for all heart attack patients. For those brought in by paramedics, it’s an average of 76 minutes. For people who drive themselves in, it averages around 110 minutes.
Leahy says if someone thinks they’re having a heart attack…dial, don’t drive.
Leahy: You really don’t get here faster if you’re driving yourself. It seems like you could, but the medics get there in a matter of minutes, and most importantly, you’re getting here safely.
John McVey is alive because his wife called 9-1-1.
John McVey: I’m back to all my normal activities now. They put the stent in there, restored the blood flow, and everything seems to be fine. My doctor says the rest of my arteries look nice and clear.
Each year, more than one million Americans suffer a heart attack. About one quarter of these people die before reaching the hospital.
Kenny Goldberg, KPBS News.
