Heart Attack Care in Southwest Georgia
In the event a cardiac crisis does occur, no hospital is better equipped to ensure the best outcome. The Georgia Department of Public Health’s Office of EMS and Trauma designated Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital a Level 1 Emergency Cardiac Care Center, Georgia’s highest level of emergency cardiac care. Phoebe is the first and only hospital in Southwest Georgia to earn this designation.
Heart Attack: What is it?
Located in the center of your chest, your heart is the pump that sends blood circulating throughout your body. And it does this 24 hours a day, every day of your life. Like every other muscle in your body, your heart depends on a constant supply of blood for oxygen and nutrients. This blood supply is provided through arteries surrounding your heart.
But in some people, fatty deposits -- called plaque -- can build up along the walls of the arteries surrounding the heart. The flow of oxygen-rich blood is restricted, and the result is called coronary artery disease.
Eventually, plaque deposits can tear, burst or rupture, creating a "snag" in the artery, and a blood clot forms that can block the artery. When an artery becomes blocked, stopping blood flow, the cells downstream from the blockage are starved for oxygen and begin to die. This is a heart attack.
Act Fast, Delay is Deadly!
At the first sign of a heart attack, call: 911.