From Naperville Sun columnist Tim West:
When Dr. Brain meets Dr. Heart at Edward Hospital
October 11, 2009
Whenever I go somewhere these days and the audience is either my age or older, I figure I have to be at something that has to do with medical afflictions of those of us who were fortunate enough to reach an age where such are prevalent.
Thus, when I went to a program with the title "Dr. Heart and Dr. Brain," at Edward Hospital last week, the several hundred people in the Edward Education Center auditorium were too old to play outfield for the Chicago Cubs but just about the right age to play guitar for the Rolling Stones.
But though problems associated with the heart and brain do more often affect those of us in what I like to think of as late early middle age, my ticker has been problematic since birth and I had quadruple bypass surgery at Edward when I was a mere lad of 46 and a combination pacemaker and defibrillator put in my chest not quite five years ago.
So when it comes down to Dr. Heart meeting Dr. Brain I can honestly consider that I have a little more skin in the game than most.
The program -- presented by Dr. Vince Bufalino, medical director of Edward Heart Hospital and president of Midwest Heart Specialists, and Dr. Jeff Miller, medical director of the Edward Neurosciences Institute -- dealt primarily with heart attacks and strokes, what they are, how they occur and what the warning signs are.
The Edward Neurosciences Institute is a new program run by Edward through a partnership with the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation.
The institute's $5 million lab can create a three-dimensional image of the brain in order to pinpoint a location of a stroke.
Miller is one of 300 specialists countrywide called neurointerventionalists. The lab has five such doctors who cover it 24/7 so stroke victims or other patients with neurological disorders such as aneurysms, brain tumors and spine tumors can be diagnosed and treated at any time.
For victims of cardiac arrest, Bufalino emphasized the importance of immediate treatment with CPR and/or an AED (automated external defibrillator) if one is available.
The hospital and the city have long been encouraging the placement of AEDs in public buildings. If someone goes into cardiac arrest, an AED can be used by pretty much anyone to shock the victim's heart.
Edward Hospital's Web page, which is full of all sorts of information about the hospital and its programs, also has short tests you can take to assess your likelihood of having either a heart attack or stroke. I would recommend these to anyone, especially those of us old enough to be a guitarist for the Rolling Stones.
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