Kulsum International Hospital

According to developed guidelines, hospitals need to meet a certain criteria, which entail a 90-minute or less time standard for treatment with angioplasty. This procedure starts from the moment a patient enters the hospital till the time when the balloon is inflated and blood flow is reinstated. Medicare data from about 300,000 patients in 900 different hospitals in the US, found the approximate figure of the “door to balloon” times to be a median of 96 minutes in 2005, which improved to a median of 64 minutes in 2010. The efficient and well-performing hospitals frequently attained times under 60 minutes. Good news for residents of the twin cities is that at Kulsum International Hospital, the goal is less than 60 minutes, the last patient treated (at the time of writing this article) in situation of severe heart attack received this treatment in 46 minutes, putting our performance at par with the best performing hospitals in the US.
The last case at KIH is of a 28 year old female, who had sudden onset severe chest pain while at work in her office. She was promptly taken to the Emergency department at a private hospital. ECG was performed quickly as per recommended guidelines of under 10 minutes. Severe form of Heart attack (STEMI) was diagnosed correctly, and she was rapidly transferred to Kulsum International Hospital. In just a couple of minutes, doctors advised Angiogram/ angioplasty (also known as Primary PCI) as the best course of action. She was given appropriate blood thinner medication, and was quickly transferred to the Cardiac Cath lab. One artery was found to be completely blocked and was deemed the cause of her heart attack. A balloon was pumped up in her artery within 19 minutes of her arrival time in the Cath lab. One stent was also introduced in order to hold the artery open. The total “door-to-balloon” time recorded was 46 minutes. Her chest pain resolved, ECG normalized, Heart attack stopped and the heart muscle showed no significant damage on Echocardiogram.