February is Heart Health Month.

If you have a heart attack, minutes can mean the difference between life and death.

For a month, 10 News has been sharing red flags to watch for, how to keep your heart healthy and tips from doctors about why Appalachia has a high prevalence of cardiovascular disease.

But we’d like to show you how Carilion’s local doctors are trained to respond to cardiac emergencies. Carilion is nationally recognized for how we respond to heart attacks. Their approach is called the Carilion Clinic Heart Alert program. Based on national standards, the HeartAlert program reduces the time it takes to provide life-saving care to people who have had a heart attack.

In a 10 News exclusive, we join Heart Alert to learn what happens behind the scenes when someone calls 911 for a heart attack, and how the medical team makes the critical minutes count. I had a chance to see it first hand.

The streamlined approach is designed to ensure everyone, including EMS providers, physicians, and Carilion cardiac care specialists, can provide coordinated care every step of the way. Carillion said emergency medical providers in Western Virginia are trained to work closely with medical technicians, doctors and nurses. The HeartAlert program, initiated while a heart attack victim is being transported to the hospital, aims to minimize damage to the heart while simultaneously providing comprehensive care.

Time is a battle For Carilion Clinic air paramedic Taylor Powell, it’s a battle every day.

“Time is absolutely critical. One of the things we say a lot in medicine is that time is tissue.” Whether it’s a stroke, a heart attack, or even a limb with no pulse. Time is of the essence,” Powell said.

Every day she works in the air with Lifeguard 10, providing life-saving care to patients who need to get to the hospital as quickly as possible.

In a heart attack, minutes can mean the difference between life and death, so speed of treatment is critical. When medical care is delivered more quickly and efficiently, lives are saved, damage to the heart muscle is reduced, and patient outcomes are improved.

That’s why Carilion trains and runs something called Cardiac Alert, which simulates responding to a 911 call for a heart attack.

“In many cases, an ambulance will be on scene,” Powell said. “They send us out so we can provide very timely transportation, start life-saving treatment, and get them to the cath lab very quickly.”

Powell explained that their goal is to provide life-saving care in just 10 minutes of on-site time, from the time the Lifeguard 10 helicopter lands to the time it takes off.

Dr. Ayoub Mirza, Medical Director of CRMH Cath Lab, is accompanying us in this Heart Alert simulation.

“We’re hopeful that he’ll be able to look at our process,” Powell said. Typically, Dr. Mirza only sees heart attack patients in the cath lab.

“Patients need to understand that Carilion Clinic is one of the high-volume centers that treats patients who come in with heart attacks. We have great experience,” Dr. Mirza said. He said CRMH alone receives about two heart alerts a day.

“The volume is still very loud. That’s why we are so experienced and can open the artery that is causing the heart attack within minutes,” Dr. Mirza said.

The national effort to improve heart attack treatment is measuring how quickly hospitals perform cardiac life support on heart attack patients, according to Carilion Clinic. The “door-to-balloon time” starts from the moment the patient arrives at the hospital (how quickly percutaneous coronary intervention, also known as PCI, is performed to remove blockages in the arteries and restore blood flow to the heart). (pointing to the target) must be within 90 seconds. Within minutes, according to the American College of Cardiology.

Carillion’s average response time is approximately 30 minutes faster than the national standard.

Dr. Mirza said the biggest delay they see is patients ignoring heart attack symptoms and waiting to call 911.

Learn more about the differences in heart attack symptoms for men and women.

“The longer a patient waits to call 911, the more muscle damage there is. The more muscle damage there is, the greater the likelihood of subsequent heart failure outcomes and death,” Dr. Mirza said. Stated.

Like most patients who board Lifeguard 10 during medical emergencies, this was Dr. Mirza’s first time riding in a helicopter. He was excited about the opportunity. If he was nervous, he never showed it.

“I think it’s important for us to look at what the challenges are, both for patients and for EMS,” Dr. Mirza said.

The simulation included first responders from Roanoke County, Hartnett, and Carillion physician teams. Tuning the simulation took several weeks.

Dr. Mirza was able to observe firsthand what happens when a patient is brought in by ambulance with a heart attack, how they are treated, and the process by which paramedics airlift patients to CRHM.

“I think it was very eye-opening for him to see how we interact with patients in the field,” Powell said.

“I was surprised at how smoothly the whole process went. The adjustments were easy,” said Dr. Mirza.

And all that adjustment is thanks to such training. Treating and transporting patients as quickly as possible requires coordination between teams of people and agencies. Dr. Mirza said the experience was invaluable.

He wants to continue cross-training doctors in the field so that local doctors are ready to save lives when every minute can mean the difference between life and death.