Given South Valley
’s growing and aging population, we were disturbed to hear that
Saint Louise Regional Hospital has no plans to add angioplasty to
its repertoire of services.
Given South Valley’s growing and aging population, we were disturbed to hear that Saint Louise Regional Hospital has no plans to add angioplasty to its repertoire of services.
“In order to do a lot of cardio services, you need a significant population base. Otherwise, it’s not feasible to do it in a small community,” James Roosevelt, executive director of the Saint Louise Regional Hospital Foundation, told reporter Lori Stuenkel. “We just don’t have the capacity to do that.”
Angioplasty is minor surgery usually performed under local anesthesia to save the lives of heart attack patients. A catheter with a small balloon attached is inserted into the femoral artery through an incision in the groin and directed to the blockage causing the heart attack. The balloon is inflated, opening the artery in 95 percent of cases.
The only procedure available at Saint Louise Hospital in Gilroy is administration of clot-busting drugs, which are effective only two-thirds of the time.
“The sicker the patient, the more benefit they have (from angioplasty),” Saint Louise Cardiologist Cheung “Tom” Leung said.
South Valley patients who need angioplasty must be sent to San Jose – O’Connor Hospital is the closest facility offering the service – usually after they’ve been taken to Saint Louise first, losing precious time that can make the difference between life and death.
Studies show that angioplasty loses its lifesaving advantage over clot-busting drugs if treatment is delayed by as little as an hour.
That’s easy to imagine happening in South Valley: Consider the scenario of response time from an ambulance (especially if the patient lives here in Morgan Hill or San Martin), treatment on-site, transportation to Saint Louise, evaluation there, determination that angioplasty, not clot-busting drugs, are needed, and then transportation to O’Connor Hospital. It’s evident that lives could be saved if Saint Louise, the only hospital in south Santa Clara County, offered angioplasty.
Angioplasty must be performed in a cardiac catheterization lab, which Saint Louise has no plans to add due to the estimated $10 million price tag.
We think this lifesaving procedure should be offered by our region’s only hospital – and we urge the medical community, civic leaders and area politicians to work together to find a way to make it possible.
There are many civic and charitable groups, including Rotary, Kiwanis, Gilroy Foundation, Morgan Hill Health Foundation, San Martin Neighborhood Alliance, Daughters of Charity – which runs both O’Connor and Saint Louise hospitals – that could join forces with Gilroy, Morgan Hill and county leaders to make a cardiac catheterization lab a reality at Saint Louise.
The lab would be able to offer angioplasty on a non-emergency basis to patients with arterial blockages and be available for emergencies.
“It would take investment, but we should do it,” Leung said. “This should be part of the thinking when we expand … I think (Saint Louise) is ready with the role that we have.”
Let’s work together to make a cardiac catheterization lab a priority and then a reality at Saint Louise Hospital. One of the lives the lab saves might belong to someone you love – or it might be your own.
