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PLATINUM AWARD

ValleyCare Health System received the American College of Cardiology’s

NCDR ACTION Registry–GWTG (Get With The Guidelines)

Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2014. ValleyCare is one of

only 256 hospitals nationwide to receive the honor. The award recognizes

ValleyCare Health System’s success in implementing a higher standard

of care for heart attack patients and signifies that ValleyCare has

reached an aggressive goal in treating these patients.

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BREASTFEEDING CHALLENGES

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Q&A: COLONOSCOPY

Beginnings

BEYOND

and

—Continued on page 2

I

f you were a woman in your 30s

or 40s, in fairly good shape, raising

a family and working, would you

even consider yourself a candidate

for a heart attack? Probably not. Why

would you?

That was the situation for Sarah

Vega, age 39, of Pleasanton who, along

with her husband, is raising their

6-year-old son, is in good shape and

works full time for a software company.

Sounds pretty normal and not at all

a heart attack candidate. However, she

awakened early one morning last May

in a cold sweat and feeling breathless.

Not quite sure what was going on, she

got up, took some aspirin and when

looking in the mirror, noticed she was

ghost white.

IN DENIAL

“I went back to bed, but was

so uncomfortable I couldn’t go

back to sleep, then both arms

started to tingle. That’s when I

woke my husband,” says Vega.

“You really are in denial about

it being a heart attack, but I

felt so uncomfortable I knew

something wasn’t right, so

my husband called 911.”

When the paramedics arrived, they

initially thought she was having some

sort of panic attack because of her

good health and age. But, once they

got her hooked up to the monitors,

they realized it was a heart attack and

started wiring the monitor reports to

the ValleyCare emergency room.

“They were ready and waiting

for me at ValleyCare, and after a

couple of blood tests, I was in the

cath lab where they found my LAD

(left anterior descending artery—

commonly called the ‘widow maker’)

was 100 percent blocked,” Vega

explains. “After putting in a couple of

stents, believe it or not, I was back

home late the next day and have been

doing great ever since!”

NO RISK FACTORS

According to statistics from the Heart

Foundation, each year 435,000 U.S.

women have a heart attack. Of these,

35,000 under the age of 55 die. ValleyCare

Cardiologist Ramford Ng, MD, says: “One

is never too healthy or too young to have

a heart attack. We never discount the

forWomen

Simply Health

HEART ATTACK

www.valleycare.com

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Winter 2015

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