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NEW YORK, Mar 27 (Reuters Health) - When it comes to saving the life of a heart attack patient, experts say every minute counts. But half of heart attack sufferers choose to get themselves to the hospital rather than calling 911, according to national statistics.
Analyzing US data on heart attack patients from 1994 to 1998, researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham found that only about half of nearly 328,000 patients had called for an ambulance. Men and younger heart attack victims were least likely to dial 911 for help.
"The sooner you get treatment, the better," lead author Dr. John Canto said in an interview. But, he noted, "that's a hard message to convey."
Canto presented his team's findings last week in New Orleans, Louisiana at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology.
Although it has been established that heart attack patients get treatment more quickly when they call an ambulance, research shows they often choose to take their own mode of transportation to the hospital. According to experts, the reasons range from people's failure to recognize heart attack symptoms to their belief that they can get themselves to the hospital faster than an ambulance can.
That is a mistake, according to Canto, not only because paramedics can begin treatment immediately, but also because people who arrive at the hospital in an ambulance are treated as emergencies. Those who wander in on their own, he noted, deal with waiting rooms, insurance forms and other obstacles that ambulance patients "bypass."
Canto's team found that 69% of male heart attack patients had gotten themselves to the hospital. Exactly why so many men failed to dial 911 is unclear. The point of this study, according to Canto, was to figure out which people to target the "call-911" message to.
"The national public message," he said, "is that if you think you're having a heart attack, dial 911."
Heart attack symptoms are often not obvious. They include chest pain that may feel like heartburn, stomach discomfort that may feel like indigestion, shortness of breath and pain that radiates down the left arm.
Some people, Canto noted, may not call 911 because they might be embarrassed if their symptoms turn out to be nothing. While no one wants everyone with indigestion overwhelming the 911 system, he said, people with heart attack risk factors--which include older age, high blood pressure and diabetes--should not be shy about calling an ambulance.
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