Campaign to Get Heart Patients to Hospital Faster

Noting that delay in seeking emergency help is a key factor in the nearly 500,000 deaths from heart attacks each year, the American Heart Association (AMA) and the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) have begun a campaign to raise awareness of the importance of calling quickly for medical help.

The campaign targets patients, doctors, and the general public with messages encouraging recognition of heart attack symptoms and emphasizing the importance of getting quickly to a hospital. The most common heart attack warning signs are pain or discomfort in the center of the chest; discomfort in one or both arms, back, neck, jaw, or stomach; shortness of breath; and signs such as breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea, and light-headedness. Despite life-saving advances in the treatment of a heart attack, only a small percentage of patients get to the hospital early enough to benefit from treatment, say Dr. Claude Lenfant, NHLBI director, and Dr. David Faxon, AMA president, in an editorial in the September 11, 2001, issue of Circulation.

"Most potential heart attack victims wait at least two—possibly four—hours before seeking medical help and some wait a day or more,” said Dr. Lenfant. "It is during that crucial 60-minute window that clot-busting medication and other treatments are most effective.”




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Circulation