Patient credits WBAMC with saving life
Maj. Ryan McDonough (background), chief of cardiology, William Beaumont Army Medical Center, inserts a guide wire through the femoral artery of a patient during an ST- Segment Elevation Myocardial infarction, or STEMI, procedure at the catheterization laboratory, WBAMC, June 29. WBAMC currently holds the fastest door-to-balloon times in the Department of Defense and the City of El Paso, Texas, averaging 50 minutes over the last two years. Door-to-balloon time is the measurement of time necessary from the point of patient arrival to the point a catheter with a small balloon is deployed placing a coronary stent system in the artery and opening up the artery. National guidelines for door-to-balloon time are set at 90 minutes or less.
