"I was very confident with the cardiac team and had a very positive experience. I feel so much better now!"
Toms River resident Herminio, RN – a Home Health Nurse at Community Medical Center - spent nearly half of his career working on the Telemetry Unit at Community Medical Center assisting patients with post-cardiac care. Little did Herminio know that he would be a patient in that same unit.
"I thought I was healthy and never expected to have a heart attack," said Herminio. So when he woke up in the middle of the night with severe chest pain, he knew something was terribly wrong. Herminio sought the expertise of Ibrahim Moussa, DO, a board certified interventional cardiologist at Community Medical Center, who diagnosed Herminio with a heart attack.
Herminio underwent an emergent cardiac catheterization at Community Medical Center's Cardiac Catheterization Lab where he was found to have a 100% blocked heart artery – also known as a "widow maker." He subsequently underwent an angioplasty and stenting.
"If left untreated, the blocked artery can potentially cause massive damage to the heart muscle – leaving the patient in heart failure or potentially causing death," said Dr. Moussa. "Time is muscle. The more time that goes by with the artery being blocked - the more damage to the heart muscle. Our quick and highly skilled response team with excellent interventionists is accustomed to dealing with a high number of heart attacks for many years and understands that time is of the essence."
Following the procedures, Herminio was admitted to the Cardiac Care Unit and went home the following day. Two weeks later, Herminio had a second cardiac catheterization, angioplasty and stent placement. As part of his follow-up treatment, he received six weeks of intense therapy through the hospital's Cardiac Rehabilitation Program, including a progressive exercise plan, nutrition counseling and medication management.
"I was very confident with the cardiac team and had a very positive experience. I feel so much better now!"