The purpose of this non-profit organization is to help community hospitals set up Chest Pain Centers in Emergency Departments, throughout the U.S. and the world, to provide comprehensive management of patients presenting with chest pain so that we can shift the paradigm of care away from thrombolytic management to the relentless pursuit of prodromal symptom recognition of the heart attack problem. Simply stated, it is the recognition of the early symptoms of a heart attack. EHAC is an awareness strategy that encourages intervention early and so prevents death and damage in patients with heart attacks. Central chest discomfort not perceived as chest pain and therefore not perceived by the individual as important enough to be checked out early. The discomfort comes on with activity and goes away with rest.
Symptoms are usually intermittent, coming and going.
This deceives the individual into thinking that the discomfort will go away and not come back. Time is lost. The person experiencing these symptoms is usually not recognizable in a crowd, so the usual formula for early recognition is not there. The first responder is not under peer pressure to take time to help the victim, thus enabling the denial process. Finally, EHAC is not currently part of the Chain of Survival.