Cardiac Emergencies and Heart Attack

From our paramedics to our ER teams, interventional cardiologists, and cardiac surgeons, your heart is in excellent hands at Virtua. From the moment you arrive, our teams are ready to treat your cardiac emergency and return you to wellness.

Signs and Symptoms of a Cardiac Emergency

Heart attack and cardiac arrest are the two most common cardiac emergencies. A heart attack occurs when an artery becomes blocked, preventing the flow of oxygen-rich blood to the heart. Cardiac arrest occurs when the heart suddenly stops beating or beats so fast that it stops pumping blood.

Signs of a Heart Attack

• Chest pain, pressure, tightness, squeezing, or aching
• Pain or discomfort that spreads to the shoulder, arm, back, neck, jaw, teeth, or upper abdomen
• Sweating
• Fatigue
• Lightheadedness or dizziness
• Nausea or vomiting
• Shortness of breath

Signs of Cardiac Arrest

• Heart palpitations (a fast or pounding heartbeat)
• Fatigue
• Dizziness
• Lightheadedness
• Shortness of breath
• Nausea
• Chest pain
• Fainting or loss of consciousness

If you or someone you know is experiencing symptoms of a heart attack or cardiac arrest, call 911 immediately. 

Cardiac Emergency Diagnosis at Virtua

At any of our emergency departments, our staff will assess your health and determine the severity of your condition.

Tests to diagnose a cardiac emergency include:

• Electrocardiogram (ECG) to measure electrical signals as they pass through the heart
• Blood tests
• Imaging tests such as a chest X-ray, cardiac CT or MRI
• Echocardiogram to see how blood moves through your heart
• Cardiac catheterization to see inside the artery and possibly remove the blockage through an angioplasty and stenting

After your heart emergency has been stabilized, possible tests we might perform include:

• Echocardiogram
• Blood tests
• Echocardiogram
• Nuclear stress test

Cardiac Emergency Treatment at Virtua

At Virtua, you have immediate access to the largest and most experienced team of specialists in the region.

Treatment for a heart attack includes:

• Coronary angioplasty and stenting. Also called percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), your interventional cardiologist guides a thin, flexible tube to the narrowed part of the artery. A special balloon is inflated to widen the artery, and a stent is inserted to keep it open.
• Atherectomy. Sometimes performed as part of an angioplasty, plaque is removed from the artery using a rotating shaver, laser, or sound waves.
• Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. A heart surgeon takes a healthy blood vessel from another part of the body to create a new path for blood to the heart. At Virtua, CABG surgery is performed by the nationally recognized team at Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital.
• Clot-busting or blood thinning medication.

Treatment for cardiac arrest includes:

• Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). One of the most important treatments to improve cardiac arrest survival, CPR uses chest compressions to replace the heart’s pumping action, moving small amounts of blood from your heart to your brain.
• Automatic or external defibrillation. A device delivers a brief electrical current through your chest to your heart. The current restores the normal impulses that make it beat. It may take more than one shock for your heart to pump on its own again.