La clinical Glorieta de Dénia has made history by becoming the first clinic in the Marina Alta that incorporates its first cardiac defibrillator. This is a device that has been shown to be useful in reducing total mortality in patients with heart problems because it reduces sudden cardiac death.
The defibrillator has several functions. On the one hand it acts as a pacemaker and on the other hand it is put into action when the heart presents "dangerous" arrhythmias for health, which are known as "malignant ventricular arrhythmias". When a person's heart starts beating faster than normal causing total failure, the defibrillator starts to work eliminating these arrhythmias, it's like carrying a cardiac intensive care unit inside your own chest. The IAD has a difficult and complicated mission: to try to avoid sudden death due to a serious cardiac arrhythmia.
Dr. Fernando de la Guía, head of the cardiology team of Clínica Glorieta, and the renowned electrophysiologist Dr. Aurelio Quesada, director of the Arrhythmology Chair of the Faculty of Medicine of the Catholic University of Valencia, implanted the first defibrillator in Dénia to a patient who had suffered a myocardial infarction a few years ago and as a result of it his heart had been damaged and he was presenting arrhythmias very dangerous to his health.
The procedure was performed under local anesthesia and was a total success. In addition, thanks to current technology, the patient has the possibility of being communicated remotely with the cardiologist through a home monitoring system. It is a transmitter that the patient has at home and that is connected to the telephone line, and communicates with the DAI and transmits the information stored through the internet so that they can be consulted by the cardiologist.
