Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center held a Heart Health Lunch & Learn event Friday at the Westwood Event Center to encourage heart health and answers questions from those in the community.
The leading cause of death in the world today is heart disease, according to PBRMC Cardiac Nurse Practitioner Leona Bergen, who stated the purpose of the luncheon was to help inform and educate the community.
A board of physicians, cardiologists and emergency medical staff from the hospital gathered to discuss the importance of heart health and risk factors of heart attack, as well as procedures and new technology available for the prevention and treatment of heart-related illnesses.
“I get the pleasure of being around them (physicians) every single day and seeing all the beautiful things they do, and no pun intended, the heart they put into taking care of all of you and making you safe every single day. Everybody should be very happy that right here in our community when you see that big old light up at the hospital, you know, we don’t ever want you to have to come there, but if you do, we’re going to take care of you,” said CEO Rick Naegler, during his introduction of the panel of speakers.
According to the panel discussion, the clock starts for medical teams on a cardiac event from the time the patient contacts emergency services.
“We actually have a great system called Pulsara. Pulsara is technology today with Wi-Fi. EMS can put in at the time they arrive or put that person’s EKG on, (and) we can transmit that straight to the hospital,” said Rodney Brown, PBRMC director of cardiology services. This ensures when patients arrive at the hospital, a team will be ready and waiting.
The very first thing to remind everyone is there’s advancement technology, said Butler County EMS Director, David Ross.
“We do try to streamline the entire process for patient care,” he said. “The goal being to get everybody that needs it help and quickly. ... The very first and most important factor is that a problem is recognized and we’re contacted as quickly as possible.
“I can’t tell you how many patients we see on the ambulance that call finally after two weeks of having chest pain and say yes, it’s just not going away. There’s a lot of damage done by people that know there are problems and they just didn’t think it was that big of a deal to call the doctor or to call 911.”
The panel stressed if problems are addressed early, it makes a tremendous difference in the outcome of heart health and in general how much doctors can assist.
Some interventions can be taken, which is why it’s so important to have routine care checkups with a doctor and have a stress test, according to the panel discussion.
“The basic word is mitigate risk, reduce risk. So if you have diabetes, controlling blood sugar, the number one killer of the diabetic population is a cardiovascular event. That’s pretty scary,” said primary care physician Dr. David Woods.
Woods stated that controlling blood sugar would prevent damage to blood vessels and controlling blood pressure would prevent damage to the kidneys, major vessels and heart.
“Medications are involved in that but also you’re involved in that, watching your salt intake, getting regular exercise. Your heart is a muscle that needs to be exercised just like other muscles to stay in shape,” said Woods.
The most important thing the panel agreed upon, is recognizing symptoms.
“I would like to remind everybody that chest pain is different for each person,” Bergen said. “A lot of times, chest pain can be a crusher or something heavy sitting on their chest with a little bit of shortness of breath or diaphoresis, sweating.
“Women have different types of pains simply because they have different chest sizes. They also have different vascular components, because women have smaller blood vessels typically than men.”
For others, it might be pain in the back or jaw, or being short of breath.
“(If) you just feel like something is wrong, it never hurts to have it checked out, especially if you get a little sweaty, short of breath, nauseated, that’s what we’re here for. We’re glad to see you and we’re glad to talk to you,” said Bergen.