Heart & Vascular News, from Upstate Medical University

H E A RT & VA S C U L A R NEWS Fa l l 2 0 1 1

U p s TaT e r aT e s high in ConsUmer r e p o rT s The September issue of “Consumer Reports” magazine includes an exclusive rating of heart surgeons — and Upstate’s cardiac surgery program makes the list. The 2011 Society of Thoracic Surgeons coronary artery bypass surgery ratings can also be found at www. ConsumerReports.org/health. The data, from 2009 to 2010, looks at overall performance, complications and other quality measures. n

w e lCo m e d r . s Z o m B aT h y Tamas Szombathy MD, FACC, has joined Upstate’s clinical faculty in the division of cardiology as an assistant professor of medicine. He comes from Tufts University and St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston, MA where he completed a fellowship in clinical electrophysiology.

f r o m t h e Up s tat e H e a rt a n d Va s c u l a r C e n t e r , Up s tat e Un i v e r s i t y H o s p i ta l

C h i l ly T r e aT m e n T s av e s wa r m - h e a rT e d m a n t 75, Ray Kimball is a veteran of the Empire State Senior Games. He was competing in racewalking on June 9 in Cortland. Without warning, he collapsed. His heart had stopped beating correctly in a rhythm known as ventricular fibrillation.

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“I don’t think I made it halfway through the first lap,” Kimball recalls. Paramedics used a defibrillator to restart his heart and raced him to Upstate’s Cardiac “Cath” Lab where Danish Siddiqui MD performed emergency cardiac catheterization. Once stabilized, Kimball underwent bypass surgery with Gregory Fink MD, Upstate’s chief of cardiopulmonary surgery. The skill and precision of Upstate’s cardiac surgery team repaired Kimball’s heart. A more rudimentary technique known as “chill therapy” is credited with preserving his brain. When the heart stops beating and then is revived, cytotoxins are released into the bloodstream that can cause irreversible damage to the brain.“Chilling the patient with strategically placed ice packs slows blood flow and the absorption of cytotoxins, improving chances for the patient to survive neurologically intact,” explains Andre Poirier RN of the “Cath” Lab. Kimball was hospitalized 11 days. He continued healing for eight weeks. Today he’s walking two miles per day. “I feel good,” he says. “It’s just a matter of healing up.” He hopes to be back on his bicycle soon, if not to race, just to ride. n

He is board certified in Internal Medicine; Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Disease; Nuclear Cardiology and Echocardiography. Ray Kimball and his wife, Dorothy, live in Chaumont, outside of Watertown.

Syracuse New York