Emergency Cardiac Care

Man experiencing cardiac emergency

In a cardiac emergency, every minute counts. Englewood Health is here for you, offering rapid, expert treatment for life-threatening heart and vascular conditions. We stand ready to provide the highest level of care, whatever your emergency.

If you are experiencing a medical emergency, call 911 immediately. Symptoms of a heart attack include:

  • Chest pain, discomfort, tightness, or pressure
  • Shortness of breath
  • Fainting, lightheadedness, dizziness, or extreme fatigue
  • Pain in your neck, jaw, throat, upper abdomen, or back
  • Pain, numbness, weakness, coldness, or swelling in your legs, ankles, feet, arms, or hands
  • Changes in your heart rhythm, such as irregular, pounding, or fluttering heartbeat
  • Nausea

When your life is at risk, it’s important to choose a hospital offering the most advanced treatment. Englewood Health has a catheterization lab ready 24 hours a day to perform angioplasty and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). This emergency procedure rapidly opens blocked arteries which cause heart attacks. Not every hospital offers this expert treatment, which can make a significant difference in patient outcomes.

Emergency Cardiac Care Treatments and Services

Our interventional cardiology team is available 24/7, always communicating with emergency personnel during your transport to the hospital. We quickly assess your condition to provide the most appropriate care, which may include:

STEMI and Non-STEMI Heart Attack Care

ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is the most life-threatening type of heart attack. It’s a complete blockage in an artery supplying oxygenated blood to your heart. An “NSTEMI” heart attack, or non-ST-elevation myocardial infarction, refers to a partial blockage of an artery.

All heart attacks require rapid treatment. The term “door-to-balloon” refers to the window between your arrival to the emergency room and when we open the artery to save heart muscle. Englewood Health’s average door-to-balloon time is 64.5 minutes (2018 data), beating the national goal of 90 minutes.

If you have a heart attack, your care may include:

  • Cardiac catheterization or coronary angiography (performed in the “cath lab”): We inject dye into your bloodstream using a tube (catheter). Then we use special X-rays to create an image (or angiogram) that reveals if you have any blockages in the arteries
  • Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI): We perform angioplasty, threading a tube with a deflated balloon to your artery, then inflating the balloon to open the area. We also implant a stent to prop the artery open and reduce your risk of another blockage.
  • Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG): If your blockages cannot be safely fixed with stents, your doctor may refer you for CABG. Here we use one or more blood vessels from another part of your body and connect them to blood vessels above and below the narrowed or blocked artery to “bypass” that artery and create a clear channel for blood to flow through. Our cardiac surgeons at Englewood health specialize in this procedure.

Advanced Stroke Care

Englewood Health is designated a Primary Stroke Center by The Joint Commission. This means we have the resources, experts, and processes to treat people with acute stroke. We treat both ischemic stroke (a blocked artery in your brain) and hemorrhagic stroke (a ruptured artery in your brain). Learn more about Englewood Hospital’s stroke service.

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