The Almunecar medical facilities, which are included within the Southern Granada Health Management Area, will now have fibrinolysis available in its Unidad de Cuidados Criticos y Urgencias.

Fibrinolysis is a process that prevents blood clots from growing and becoming problematic. This process has two types: primary fibrinolysis and secondary fibrinolysis. The primary type is a normal body process, whereas secondary fibrinolysis is the breakdown of clots due to medical treatment.

Having this treatment at hand whilst a heart-attack victim is being transferred to a hospital greatly increases both the patients survival rate, as well as diminishes the damage; i.e., the quicker that the obstruction is broken down; the lesser the damage done, as the said damage is directly proportional to the length of time that the obstruction exists.

Almunecar has been chosen as a ‘pilot town’ for the later extension of the service throughout the area, in the municipal medical centres as well as the area hospitals.

The system works in the following manner: the image produced by an ECG is sent by mobile phone to the main hospital from a medical centre or even the person’s home, where it is decided whether the fibrinolysis should be administered. This way between 45 and 60 minutes of crucial time is saved, as, bearing in mind every minute gained is equivalent to 13 days of life, meaning that that we’re talking of a total of 700 days, more or less, gained.

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)