Vardaman Patient First to Benefit from Center
Linda Patterson of Vardaman is the first patient to benefit from North Mississippi Medical Center’s Chest Pain Center since the 24-hour unit moved Nov. 1 and became a cardiac flex unit. “Since NMMC first opened the Chest Pain Center in 2013, thousands of patients have benefitted,” says cardiologist Dr. Barry Bertolet. “Now, we’ve blazed another trail with this cardiac flex unit that allows for not only rapid evaluation but also ongoing inpatient care of that patient in the same location.”
Linda was headed to an 8 a.m. doctor’s appointment at Longtown Medical Park in Tupelo when her chest began to hurt. “It felt like someone was sitting on my chest,” Linda says. “I thought it was just because I had walked from the parking lot, but the pain wasn’t getting any easier.”
Two nurses who were on the elevator with Linda and her husband, Larry, followed them to her doctor’s office and told the receptionist what was going on. At their urging, Larry drove Linda to North Mississippi Medical Center’s Emergency Department.
There, doctors ordered blood tests and an EKG, a test that records the heart’s electrical activity through 10 small electrode patches attached to the skin of the chest, arms and legs. Because test results were normal and her chest pain subsided, Linda was moved to the Chest Pain Center for observation.
“In about half of all cases, early symptoms precede a heart attack,” Dr. Bertolet explains. “We want people to go to the ER and, if needed, they will be transferred to the Chest Pain Center for a rapid but thorough evaluation to see if the issue is heart-related or something else. If the issue is heart-related, we may be able to prevent a heart attack. If, however, heart disease is ruled out, then the patient’s doctor can get on to the business of finding out the reason behind the pain.”
“They took care of me like royalty there,” Linda says. Staff checked her blood pressure and other vital signs regularly and performed an EKG and lab work twice more before discharging her home around 8 p.m. that night with medication and a follow-up appointment with a cardiologist.
Typically patients spend less than six hours in the Chest Pain Center, which allows adequate time for observation without the expense of a hospital admission. Many patients are relieved to find out their chest pain is not heart-related, while others are fortunate that the early warning signs of heart trouble were recognized. “Our goal is to prevent heart attacks by further evaluating issues that might otherwise be overlooked or put off until another day,” Dr. Bertolet says.
Learn more by visiting nmhs.net/heart-vascular or calling 1-800-THE DESK (1-800-843-3375).
