Only 16 per cent of patients suffering a myocardial infarction call 911 for help, stated the experts of the Semicyuc: the Spanish Medical Society of ICU (Sociedad Española de Medicina Intensiva y Unidades Coronarias), at the ARIAM study presentation.
This study branched out of a three month registry of 2,051 MI patients. From these data we can conclude that those that suffer these kind of incidents usually go straight to the ER, and usually drive themselves. What is worse, one third of MI patients resort to a health center instead of a hospital, which delays treatment. In their opinion, health centers do not follow treatment protocols for MI patients.
If we optimized the pre-hospitalization phase, we could shun mortality by 30 %. However, to achieve this goal it is important that people react the instant MI symptoms appear. MI mortality has seen a significative reduction due to technical advances. Conversely, the time from incident to treatment is still the same it used to be 20 years ago. The most common symptom is an acute chest pain that is sometimes felt in the pit of the stomach, which patients mistake for indigestion. Pain usually comes with sweating, dizziness, general anxiety, shortness of breath and the sense of impending doom.
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