Every day, an average of three people in the Fraser Health Region have a heart attack.
Blood flow stops to a part of their heart, and heart muscle begins to die.
Whether they’re in Burnaby or the Fraser Canyon, they’ll likely be rushed to the Royal Columbian Hospital’s cardiac catheterization lab – the “cardiac emergency room” for the entire health authority, according RCH cardiologist Dr. Gerald Simkus.
“We poke a little hole in the artery, either in the arm or the leg, and pass a little tube up to the heart through which we inject some dye down the arteries to see what’s plugged up,” Simkus explains. “The arteries look like little branches of a tree, and we can see which branch is plugged up. Then we go through the little tubes and advance little wires, which are the size of a couple of hairs, and we, with great finesse and technique, get the things through the blockages and then open it up and pass a balloon down along that wire and open up the blockage.”
Called an acute infarct angioplasty, it’s very satisfying work when everything works out, Simkus says, and performing the procedure more than 1,000 times a year – more than all other B.C. hospitals combined – has made the RCH team very good at it.
“There’s no question, the more you do, the better you get at it,” Simkus said.
The equipment he and his fellow physicians work, however, is about 10 years old and needs to be replaced, so last week the Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation launched a campaign to raise $3.3 million for upgrades.
The funds will buy new monitoring and imaging equipment, vital for the precise procedures performed in the lab.
“There have been improvements in technology, so you get better visualization, higher resolution, so we can actually see what we’re doing,” Simkus said. “Sometimes it can be very complicated to see where we’re going, and you need to be quite precise when you’re placing these stents and stuff. You don’t want to put them in the wrong spot.”
Individuals, businesses, community groups and foundations can donate to the Cardiac Care Campaign by visiting www.rchfoundation.com/heart or phoning 604-520-4438.
Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation is an independent charitable foundation that raises money to help fund priority equipment needs, facility enhancements, research, education and innovation at Royal Columbian. See www.rchfoundation.com or call 604-520-4438.
