Windsor Regional Hospital expands life-saving heart care

The expansion of cardiac catheterization is completely done at Windsor Regional Hospital. CTV Windsor’s Chris Campbell has the details.

Windsor Regional Hospital officially opened its expanded cardiac catheterization laboratory on Monday, adding a second treatment table hospital officials say will improve access to life-saving cardiac care.

The new Ouellette Campus lab is expected to reduce wait times for emergency and scheduled procedures while allowing physicians to treat more patients closer to home, say officials.

“This is a milestone for cardiac care in Windsor-Essex,” said Nicole Krywionek, Chief Nursing Executive and Vice-President of Cardiology. “We are going to be a launch pad from here to develop new cardiac procedures and technologies.”

Krywionek said the addition of a second table will significantly improve patient care.

“Up until this point, we’ve been operating with one cardiac cath lab table,” she said. “What this means, is there’s going to be fewer interruptions in care.”

Previously, if two cardiac emergencies arrived at the same time, one patient could be transferred to another hospital, often across the border to Detroit.

“A lot of times it was to the States,” Krywionek said. “That costs the taxpayers money, it costs our community money. So, we’re avoiding that by making this investment.”

According to Windsor Regional, the additional treatment table will nearly eliminate the need to transfer patients to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit — transfers that have averaged about one patient each month and have cost Ontario between $43,000 and $75,000 USD per procedure, with more complex cases costing significantly more.

Hospital officials said Windsor Regional treats approximately 2,000 cardiac patients annually.

The new facility also relocates the cardiac catheterization lab from the basement to the hospital’s second floor, closer to the emergency department and cardiac care unit.

Krywionek said that will improve communication between physicians and nurses while allowing the hospital to introduce new technologies and procedures that were previously difficult to accommodate.

Life-saving impact

For retired Essex-Windsor EMS Chief Bruce Krauter, the expansion marks the realization of a goal he first discussed more than a decade ago — and one that carries deep personal meaning.

Krauter helped develop one of Ontario’s first protocols allowing paramedics to bypass local hospitals and transport heart attack patients directly to Windsor’s cardiac catheterization lab.

Years later, that same protocol saved his own life.

“It was Aug. 1, 2017,” Krauter recalled. “I started to feel a little bit of pressure in my chest.”

Working outside at his home near Leamington, the pressure quickly intensified.

“They relate it to an elephant sitting on your chest,” said Krauter. “I related it to 20 elephants sitting on my chest.”

Recognizing the symptoms of a heart attack, Krauter called 911 and was rushed directly to Windsor Regional Hospital, where physicians inserted four stents to restore blood flow to his heart.

“Oh yeah,” the former chief said, when asked whether he thinks about how different the outcome could have been. “I probably wouldn’t have been here, to be honest. I think if I wouldn’t have bypassed hospitals and come directly to the cath lab, I don’t think the outcome would have been the same.”

During Monday’s unveiling ceremony, Krauter said he was surprised to learn Windsor Regional had been the last cardiac catheterization program in Ontario operating with only one treatment table.

“I was surprised to learn that Windsor Regional Cardiac Unit was the last centre in Ontario to receive a second table, but I’m incredibly thankful that we are now here,” he said.

The expansion is part of a provincially funded project announced in 2023.

More than 17,000 square feet of hospital space was renovated to accommodate the new cardiac catheterization suite.

The local share of the project, including the purchase of a new cardiovascular information system, was funded through $7 million raised by the Windsor Regional Hospital Foundation.