75 North Country Road, Port Jefferson, NY 11777 • 631.473.1320

Mather Hospital's Chest Pain Emergency Room is the first facility of its kind on Long Island. The Chest Pain ER is actually an emergency room within an emergency room, designed specifically for patients with chest pain.

Mather Hospital's dedicated staff has a variety of medications and procedures for treating chest pain and heart attacks – it's even possible for them to stop a heart attack in progress.

Despite what many people believe, most heart attacks don't occur in an instant. Instead, they can begin hours, days, even weeks earlier.

"Half of all heart attack patients receive very subtle warning signs that they may be headed for an attack," according to Dr. Mitchell Pollack, Chief of Emergency Medicine at Mather Hospital. "Things like discomfort, pressure, an aching or burning in the chest, as well as unexplained weakness, sweating, nausea and dizziness – all of these could be a warning that you're headed for a full-blown heart attack."

"These are symptoms that should say to you, 'this could be the start of a heart attack,'" says Liz Devine, R.N., Unit Nursing Coordinator for Mather Hospital's Department of Emergency Services. "Listen to these symptoms, and get to the Chest Pain ER."

"At the Chest Pain ER, the drugs are there, the equipment is there, the staff is there and knows from the moment the patient arrives that this is a chest pain patient," Parker says. "All this saves time, and time is muscle."

But as quickly as Mather's Chest Pain ER team can act, they can't help you unless you come to the Hospital – and your chances of surviving a heart attack depend greatly on how quickly you seek and receive treatment.

"Half of all patients who suffer a heart attack die before they ever reach a hospital," Dr. Pollack says. "Many of these people can be saved with early treatment. That's what the Chest Pain ER is for.

"Every second counts when you're having a heart attack," he says. "That's why it's critical that everyone learn to recognize the warning signs of a heart attack and seek immediate attention."

For more information about Mather's Chest Pain Emergency Room, call 476-2808 – and if you or a loved one has any of the early warning signs of a heart attack, don't deny, and don't delay.

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