Essentia Health-St. Joseph’s Medical Center Performs 100th Lifesaving STEMI Procedure

Last fall, Essentia Health-St. Joseph’s Medical Center started offering 24/7 STEMI care at its Marilyn Covey Heart and Vascular Center. And just last week, the hospital performed its 100th successful lifesaving procedure.

STEMI—also known as an acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction—is the most severe type of heart attack and has a greater risk of serious complications and death. At Essentia Health, Brainerd Lakes Area residents can now receive more immediate help.

“When I first arrived here in Brainerd, the typical MO was if a patient came in with a heart attack between 7 and 4 o’clock, we would take them urgently to the catheterization lab and open up that artery,” said Essentia Health-St. Joseph Medical Center Cardiologist Dr. Mike Curran. “But if they were unfortunate enough to come in outside of those hours, they had to get shipped to another destination that was usually St. Cloud and that packaging and shipping and trying to get the LifeFlight to get here and get them down there, that takes time. So in all that time when that artery is secluded, more heart muscle is damaged.”

Lakeland News will have more on this story at a later date.