Staff Reporter
Some 7,581 commuters exposed to sudden heart attack while on road, towards their work
place or otherwise, were successfully resuscitated at different chest pain units (CPUs) run by National
Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases.The Executive Director of NICVD, Prof. Dr. Naveed Qamar talking to
journalists on Thursday said more than 300,000 patients, mainly those living in the surrounding localities
and reporting with chest pain, due to any reason, were also provided needed assistance at the
facilities."Most of our CPUs are successfully functional in Karachi and a few have also been established
in other cities of the province," he said.Choice of site for each of these units were said to be in
accordance to flow of traffic as well as distance from NICVD or any other dedicated cardiac care facility.
"We have preferred low and middle income – thickly populated localities," said the senior cardiologist.
The 15th of the institute's CPU has been turned functional in Jacobabad, a major city of the province
that also connects Sindh to remotest parts of the country with a heavy flow of inter-country traffic. The
Executive Director in June last had announced to establish Chest Pain Units (CPUs) at every district of
Sindh, which would be linked with already functioning the eight satellite centers of NICVD in different
cities of the province and had urged the Sindh health department to cooperate with them in taking over
cardiology units at the civil and district hospitals in various cities of Sindh.“We have decided to establish
our chest pain units in each and every district of Sindh, which would be connected with our satellite
centers that are already functioning in eight cities of the province. I would urge Sindh government and
the provincial health department to cooperate with us in taking over cardiology units of district hospitals
in the province to transform them into CPUs”, Prof. Nadeem Qamar said while inaugurating the first CPU
of the NICVD in District Ghotki.NICVD is already running eight Chest Pain Units in Karachi that provide
first-aid to a person in case of heart attack and shifts it to the main cardiac facility in a life-saving
ambulance for the further intervention, especially for the Primary PCI or angioplasty in emergency. The
chest pain unit established at Ghotki is first such unit outside Karachi.
