Govt doctors receive training in managing heart attack patients

Coimbatore: Doctors from 13 government hospitals in the region were taught how to manage a heart attack patient, at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital on Wednesday. They were told how to diagnose and confirm an attack, administer first line treatment that will keep a patient alive for a few hours and protocol to be followed while transferring him or her to CMCH.

They were also told how to use an android software that will instantly transmit a patient’s vitals to a centre in CMCH and Madras Medical College.

Professor Dr G Justin Paul, from Madras Medical College, came down to create a hub and spoke network to manage heart attacks in the region. “We are doing this across the state, which has 12 centres equipped with facilities to perform an angiogram and angioplasty. The state is getting another six centres equipped in the next few months,” Dr Paul said. “In Coimbatore region, which includes Nilgiris, Tirupur and Erode, we have one centre which is CMCH,” he said.

Doctors say heart attack patients who cannot reach CMCH or one of the other centres, equipped to perform an angioplasty, within an hour, should try reaching one of the spoke centres. “For example, Pollachi and Mettupalayam government hospitals are spoke centres for Coimbatore. Ooty and Coonoor government hospitals are for Nilgiris. Sathyamangalam, Gobichettipalayam and Perundurai GHs are for Erode,” Dr Paul said.

The spoke centres, or smaller government hospitals, will first confirm if the patient is having a heart attack by performing an ECG and checking their pulse. “If confirmed, they will perform thrombolysis via a tablet. The medicine will dissolve a part of the clot, allowing the blood to resume flow. However, it is temporary. Once thrombolysis is done, the patient should be taken to CMCH via 108 ambulance, where doctors will decide whether to perform an angioplasty,” Dr Paul said. “When a patient’s ECG, oxygen saturation and blood pressure are being monitored in the smaller GHs, the readings will be relayed real time on a tablet’s monitor in CMCH and MMC, so they can be prepared for the patient when he arrives,” he added.

Selected smaller GHs and ambulances will be given heart attack kits with the basic thrombolysis medicines.