Heart 2 Heart Appeal
Helping us to save the lives of heart attack victims
Heart attacks are the leading cause of death in the UK for both men and women. They need to be treated right away in order to ensure that the patient has the best chance of making a full recovery.
Frimley Park Hospital is building a £3.3 million regional heart attack centre for patients in Surrey, east Berkshire and north-east Hampshire which is due to open by April 2012. It will be the permanent home of the hospital's 24-hour, seven days a week, emergency angioplasty service.
The Heart 2 Heart Appeal was launched in 2009 to raise funds for the highly specialised equipment needed to treat heart attacks. The main piece of equipment required is a C-arm which shows a magnified image of the patient's coronary arteries so that cardiologists can see where they are blocked and successfully treat them.
By the end of 2011, the appeal had raised enough funds to purchase this vital piece of eqiupment. However the Heart 2 Heart appeal continues to raise money for further kit to support the service.
Primary angioplasty
Angioplasty involves inserting a tiny balloon into the blocked artery via a catheter fed from the groin or wrist. The balloon is then inflated to stretch the artery open. A tiny sleeve of wire mesh (or stent) surrounding the balloon stays in place, bracing open the artery walls and allowing blood to flow freely again after the balloon is removed.
When this procedure is carried out as an emergency on a heart attack patient, it is called primary angioplasty. It offers rapid and full recovery requiring no further treatment. Survival rates are greater than the previous standard treatment of giving drugs to clear blood clots.
Two cardiac catheter laboratories (cath labs) are needed to offer this emergency service. Since January 2010, cardiologists at Frimley Park have been running a round-the-clock primary angioplasty service from a temporary cath lab in addition to its main facility.
The new purpose built heart attack centre comprising two permanent cardiac cath labs, equipped with the help of funds from the Heart 2 Heart appeal, will bring all the hospital's cardiology services together into one wing, enabling the trust to provide this gold standard service to local people for many years to come.
