When it comes to heart attacks, cardiologists say “time is muscle.” The sooner you can restore blood flow to the heart, the less damage it will suffer.

The national recommendation for door-to-balloon time by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association is 90 minutes or less. Door-to-balloon time starts when a patient arrives in the emergency department and ends when a balloon-tipped catheter is inserted into the blocked heart vessel in the cardiac cath lab. The balloon is inflated, restoring blood flow to the heart.

Thanks to the rapid response by Bristol paramedics and the well choreographed cardiac care at the UConn Health Center, Leslie Roane’s blocked artery was cleared within 10 minutes of arrival with his heart suffering no long-term damage – a record-setting response time for the Calhoun cardiology team.

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