As an aside… a neighbour had an unexpected heart operation 6 months ago… went to see one specialist… who remarked on him being out of breath… I’ve just climbed those stairs… he retorted.
Mmmm… the specialist did some tests and next thing he knew he was being settled into a room… in another part of the building… waiting for surgery…
This was at Perigueux… the operation took place the next day… and he is fully recovered… phew…
It depends on the urgency, likely diagnosis, potential for needing resuscitation on the way etc but it might be that sending the patient along with a friend is the right way to deal with the situation.
Perhaps Graham can clarify that bit.
However, I’m now getting a bit worried abut this MT and their response, or that of the French health services.
At present we see a lot of people turn up to the ED who don’t need to be there - for many reasons including pressureon primary care but any half decent primary care physician (our MT for instance) should be able to correctly triage to ED.
Now it is dangerous to extrapolate from the details that we have, effectively 3rd hand from a medical professional but what is going through the MT’s mind when someone presents with “indigestion” bad enough to ulimately warrant sending to the ED?
Presumably the MT examined the patient, that should have put “acute abdomen” somewhere down the list but brings MI back up it.
There is an adage - “time is myocardium”, the longer you leave reperfusion the more heart muscle dies and it doesn’t come back so I’m starting to wonder how well the MT actually handled the situation.
Sounds like the diagnosis was clinched in Angoulême and once it had been the priority was to get to the centre where the cardiac surgery could be carried out.
The NHS certainly isn’t perfect and has gone downhill since the end of the last Labour government at which point it was getting a decent (not generous, but decent) funding.
The service in France gets a significantly higher percentage of GDP spent on it - some of the things I hear suggest that it is not always better though it often is.
If you don’t mind saying, what was the diagnostic procedure involved?
Yes, if he had gone under his own steam… that would make sense.
From my experiences … Pompiers/Medics would have made a diagnosis at the scene… in consultation with Doctors… and they would have been instructed where to take the patient.
However Angoulême might have been able to handle some cases, had access to fibrinolytic drugs, but not a cath lab or angiography but nothing interventional in the cath lab - either situation very plausible 10-15 years ago etc and he only got transferred when the situation changed etc - impossible to know when extrapolating about 99% of the details and this was clearly some time ago.
Paul they are a bunch of f…, tw…
Ruined a nation,for what?!?
Absolutely… so many possibilities… whatever… the treatment was swift and successful…
12 years ago, I called the local pompiers (for OH) around 8pm… they arrived, with a Doc close behind, in about 10 mins and confirmed my diagnosis: Heart Attack …linked him up to heaven knows what and whisked him off to the nearest A&E (20 mins).
There, he was stabilized overnight, then moved on to the major hospital (Limoges) for a couple of weeks… phew, it was the swift, local treatment which (so we are told) stopped the heart muscle suffering too much damage.
OH did not need corrective surgery… phew… lives to fight another day…
Yes, his intervention was 10 years ago but mine only 2 years ago.
Assuming that you mean the Tories I can’t help but agree 
I should add… that our “local A&E” is at a hospital “centre of excellence for the heart” (that is how it translates)… so we were very fortunate… as it is in another Department… 
Nowadays, the ambulances insist on sticking within the Dept and taking folk to Perigueux A&E… about 1 hour away… 
We go to Urgence at Macon and then cross border for specialist treatment in Lyon.
It is The Protstant Clinic in Lyon which is a national cardiac centre of excellence.
Lyon has excellent medical facilities , not just a reputation for food.
You will appreciate why I am not enthusiastic about ambulances insisting on using Perigueux hospital… which is NOT a centre of excellence for the heart… when we have one which IS… only 20 minutes away 
time is of the utmost importance when dealing with the heart…
and, rather worryingly, I have been told (recently) that ambulances are linked to certain hospitals… and that is that…
If we have a cardiac problem, it will be the pompiers who will attend and go to Macon for stabilisation.
My friend’s brother, who is a doctor, had a heart attack, was sent to Macon to be stabilised, then to Dijon and finally to Chalon for specialist surgery.
All in 71 though.
Such a shame that lots of useful medical debate is being lost on a discussion headed up as British Steel! Jeeeeeezzzzz…
that’s the fun (or not) of a forum…
Nope Stella - it’s plain daft, on this particular occasion.
ah well… such is life…
Fixed
Perhaps ,as there is little mention of British Steel in most of the thread it could be detached to start another one and the information not lost I can see where Simon is coming from, someone needing this information is not going to look in a thread entitled British Steel
I’ve had a little go… is that any better ?
Of course!