GET THEE TO A HOSPITAL!

Knowing but not acting

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Jeff Levine with HHS HealthBeat.

Whatever I'm feeling, it can't be a heart attack. A lot of people think that way - while they are having a heart attack. One researcher found that even people who had a heart attack and got special training in how to respond to another got to the hospital no faster than people without the training.

Kathleen Dracup, dean of the School of Nursing at the University of California, San Francisco says it's dangerous:

[Kathleen Dracup speaks] "Patients need to act right away - get to the hospital within 30 minutes. And the ideal is to be treated within an hour. Our patients took 2 hours to decide and get themselves to the hospital."

She says it's vital to call 9-1-1.

The study in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Jeff Levine.