Winning hearts

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, July, 2006 | by Josh Goldstein

It was a typical Friday afternoon for the heart program at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne: busy.

Two patients were on a spiffy new floor recovering from heart bypasses done without stopping their hearts - a technique growing in popularity.

Two floors down, a doctor had just finished unclogging a 55-year-old woman's arteries without open-heart surgery. And two more patients were getting similar procedures in adjoining labs.

"Hectic days involve 18 to 20 procedures," said George Heyrich, director of interventional cardiology at the suburban hospital. "We are running like that every day."

More suburban hospitals like St. Mary are offering angioplasty and open-heart surgery, taking high-end treatments closer to many patients.

At the same...