A rousing tale of two hospitals and a saved heart patient
An effective coordination and cooperation between doctors from two hospitals successfully saved the life of a person who had suffered a heart attack, officials from Shanghai Shuguang Hospital revealed on Monday.
Doctors at the hospital's cardiology department received a call from the intensive care unit of the Shanghai Cancer Center at 3am on Sunday, informing that a family member of a cancer patient being treated at the center had suffered a serious myocardial infarction.
The man had escorted his wife from southeastern Fujian Province to the Shanghai Cancer Center one month ago for treatment and was trapped in the city due to the ongoing COVID-19 resurgence.
Because of long-term fatigue and anxiety, the man surnamed Chen suddenly suffered serious chest pain.
Center doctors conducted a check on him and confirmed it was a serious type of myocardial infarction, which requires immediate surgery to open the blocked arteries.
Since the center is a professional facility for cancer treatment, it is neither qualified nor does it have any equipment for such emergency treatment. Medics put Chen in the ICU for monitoring and contacted Shuguang Hospital.
After Shuguang said it had its cardiology department staff on standby, the medics decided to transport the patient by themselves during the ongoing lockdown to save time. After receiving the family's nod, doctors from the center drove the patient to Shuguang, which had already made preparations.
After leaving for Shuguang, a sample swab of the patient was collected for COVID-19 testing and he was rushed to emergency treatment immediately.
Without a negative nucleic acid test result at hand, Shuguang doctors put on protective uniforms to carry out the emergency surgery to implant stents to open the blocked arteries and the patient's condition gradually stabilized.
"Myocardial infarction is an urgent condition with high mortality. It is very important to carry out timely treatment to save life and protect the heart's function," Dr Wang Xiaolong, head of Shuguang's chest pain center, explained. "Through cooperation between doctors of the two hospitals, we successfully saved a patient's life."
The patient was rushed to the emergency room as soon as he arrived at Shanghai Shuguang Hospital on Sunday.
Medics put on protective uniforms to perform the emergency surgery because the patient's nucleic acid test result had not come out yet.
