Posted by Carrie Lazarus - We all expect to wait in the emergency room, but a Harvard Medical school study out this week shows that nationwide, heart attack patients are waiting too long to be seen in the E.R.  In 1997, the average wait for a heart attack patient was 8 minutes.  In 2004 it increased to 22 minutes.  One in four heart attack patients waited as long as 50 minutes.

With these shocking numbers in hand, we went to the emergency room at St. Joseph's hospital in Syracuse and learned about a program to see and treat heart attack patients as quickly as possible  It's called Door to Wire; door being the door to the E.R. and wire being the catherization lab where patients receive treatment to open blocked arteries.  St. Joe's coordinates with paramedics in the ambulance to begin testing and treatment before the patient even gets to the hospital.  By the time the ambulance pulls in, the cardiologists have most of the information they need to take the patient right to the cath lab.  

Two important takeaways from this:

1.  Recognize the symptoms of a heart attack.
           Chest pain or pressure that may spread to the neck, shoulders, arms back, teeth or jaw
           Shortness of breath
           Nausea
           Anxiety
           Sweating
           Stomach pain that feels like heartburn
 
2.  Call 911.  Don't drive yourself or have someone drive you to the hospital.