Doctors at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital are sounding the alarm, after finding that less than half of the hospital’s heart attack patients called 911 for help.
Analyzing data for the years 2021 and 2022, Delnor Hospital in west suburban Geneva treated 81 patients for heart attacks. Hospital administration found 48.4% of the patients had called 911 when they began experiencing symptoms of a heart attack, but the majority, 51.6%, either drove themselves or were driven to the hospital.
“Every minute saves heart muscle and we can have somebody to the cath lab within 60 minutes of activating 911. From the time they get to our door, to the time that the cardiologist is opening up that blocked artery is 60 minutes, which is amazing,” said Dr. Art Proust, an ER physician at Delnor Hospital, referring to the cardiac catheterization lab where surgery is performed.
“The American Heart Association recommends 90 minutes and we're doing it within 60 minutes,” Prost said.
Dr. Prost said he was “actually shocked” when he learned patients weren’t calling paramedics, who are trained to start doing cardiac interventions in the field on the way to the hospital.
Dr. Proust and the emergency department team showed NBC 5 what happens when a 911 call comes in.
A special ring sounds and the staff member who answers immediately begins taking notes as the paramedics share vital data over the phone and online. The paramedics can transmit EKG results directly into the emergency room that a physician, like Dr. Proust, can analyze while the patient is en route.
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“So we can look at the EKG with them, confirm if it's a heart attack, and then activate our cath lab team,” Dr. Proust said.
Dr. Bill Towne, a cardiologist at Delnor Hospital, shared another reason to call 911.
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“About 40% of people don't make it to the emergency room for us to take care of them. They have sudden cardiac death where their heart stops. And the most important thing that the paramedics can do is they can shock the heart back into normal rhythm and give us a chance to get the artery open to help save the person,” Dr. Towne said.
Sue Burton, 68 from Geneva, was treated at Delnor Hospital for a massive heart attack on Dec. 11, 2022.
“I just kind of had a really weird feeling. Nothing hurt. But I just thought, you know, I just need to get some fresh air,” Burton said.
Burton took her dog, Murphy, for a walk, but dizziness forced her to sit down in her neighbor’s lawn, prompting the neighbor, a cardiac nurse, to run outside and offer to call 911.
“That neighbor saved her life. She absolutely did the right thing,” said Dr. Towne, the cardiologist who treated Burton.
Burton recently completed cardiac rehabilitation and is feeling great, having learned a lot from her ordeal.
“The symptoms for a heart attack aren't always just, you know, a lot of pain, because I had no pain,” Burtons said.
While Sue never experienced chest pain, the most common symptom, she did feel sweaty, dizzy and nauseous, which are less obvious warning signs, especially in women.
“Call immediately, because if it's nothing, it's nothing, but you know, the symptoms for a heart attack, I learned, are so much different than what I thought,” Burton said.
