A doctor at Comanche County Memorial Hospital recently live-streamed a life-saving procedure to medical professionals across the globe on how to safely perform it. We were also invited into the Cath lab to watch it live.

Doctor Eugen Ivan, a cardiologist at CCMH, talked to medical professionals in Asia and Europe before the cardiac catheterization procedure through a live-stream and continued the educational training during the procedure of a patient who has severely blocked coronary arteries.

“They have calcified material,” Dr. Ivan said. “Meaning that they are as hard as a bone, and we will be able to open up those blockages, modify them so they will be able to accept the stent and open up the blood flow to both those arteries.”

Dr. Ivan is able to utilize an artery in the arm or leg using a small sheath, wires, and catheters to reach the heart. He used a device to reduce coronary plaque on the vessel wall by using a rotating, diamond-coated crown, basically sanding away the hard plaque.

“We put a long tube that reaches the heart, and then we use other devices there such as wires and then what’s called orbital atherectomy,” Dr. Ivan said. “It’s a procedure that’s very powerful in terms of taking out the calcium and modifying the composition of the artery in order to make it expand and accommodate the stent so we can restore the blood flow.”

He says doing this procedure now and not waiting a few months because of the pandemic was important because the patient was threatened by the lack of blood flow.

“I think this is a great honor both for myself and Comanche Memorial Hospital and as far as I know, this is the first live case that we have done here at this hospital, and I hope there are many more to come to be able to disseminate our knowledge and help medical professionals in our country and other countries to learn from us and hopefully we can learn from them.”

Dr. Ivan is excited and looks forward to presenting more educational procedures to international healthcare professionals that are available right here in southwest Oklahoma.