Delhi: 34-minute door-to-balloon saved man's life

Santosh Kumar Gurgubelli, a 42-year-old man from Chennai, was saved by city doctors in a 34-minute door-to-balloon timeline with only 16-minutes for stenting after he collapsed due to severe chest pain due to a heart attack.

"With technological and process advancements in the healthcare industry, bringing down the response time in a critical emergency case has become the top priority of medical institutions today, as these have proven to save lives and improves outcomes. Santosh reached the Emergency department in severe distress and was experiencing ongoing chest pain, apprehension was feeling breathless. Immediately ECG was done which revealed involving extensive, anterior Myocardial Infarction which is the most serious cardiac emergency as it can lead to cardiac arrest or severe damage to the heart," said Dr Navneet Singh, Director, Emergency and Acute Care, BLK Super Speciality Hospital.

Door-to-balloon is a time measurement in emergency cardiac care, specifically in the treatment of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. The interval starts with the patient's arrival in the emergency department and ends when a catheter crosses the lesion in the cardiac cath lab. Total door to angioplasty time, in this case, was 34 minutes, which was much lesser than the international protocols of around 90 minutes.

"The patient responded very well to immediate and efficient intervention and a precious life was saved," said Dr Neeraj Bhalla, Senior Consultant, and Director, Cardiology.

lIVES AT RISK

• Over 30 lakh people suffer from a heart attack in India every year and many don’t survive 
   
• One of the biggest reasons for non-survival is timely treatment
   
• Reducing door-to-balloon plays an enormous role in reducing the fatality rate of heart attacks