June 2010 - sahtak
15
S
ixteen minutes. That’s how long it took De-
troit Medical Center (DMC) heart specialist
Dr. Mahir Elder to save the life of a middle-
aged heart attack victim recently in Detroit.
When the struggling patient was brought to a
DMC emergency room with chest discomfort one
afternoon last January, Dr. Elder and his team of car-
diac specialists went to work instantly. By inserting
an inflatable cardiac device – known as an “angio-
plasty balloon” – into the victim’s blocked heart ar-
tery, the team was able to open the clogged vessel
and restore normal blood flow to the heart.
Because of their remarkable speed in accom-
plishing this emergency heart “catheterization,” the
patient survived the attack with no harm done and
was soon headed home from the hospital to re-
sume his busy life.
So what’s it like to save a patient from a poten-
tially fatal heart attack, thanks to the remarkable
speed of your medical response?
“For a cardiologist, it’s hard to match the reward
you get from watching a heart-attack patient re-
cover and return to full, vigorous activity,” says the
award-winning Dr. Elder, a University of Michigan
graduate who also conducts groundbreaking re-
search on cardiac health.
“I guess the only thing better than that would be
to prevent that heart attack from happening in the
first place . . . by screening patients carefully in a spe-
cial clinic setting where we could weigh their risk
factors, run diagnostic tests and then help them
make whatever lifestyle changes might be necessary
to protect their hearts – long before an attack ever
takes place!”
Because he’s so intent on helping people to
“take charge of their own heart health,” Dr. Elder is
a “huge fan” of yearly checkups in which a heart
specialist can thoroughly examine patients and then
work with them to reduce the chances of heart dis-
ease or heart attack.
He’s also a fan of making this kind of preventive
and proactive heart care as convenient and easy to
obtain as possible.
Which is why he’s so excited about the DMC’s
new Specialty Center in Dearborn Heights . . .
where patients from Dearborn, westernWayne
County and Downriver can enjoy all the advantages
of specialized, downtown medicine . . . along with all
the convenience of obtaining world-class care right
in their own backyard.
“The great thing about the Specialty Center is
that it’s so easy to get to,” says Dr. Elder. “Thanks
to its convenient location, patients don’t have to
worry about driving all the way downtown or find-
ing a place to park. Knowing you can get there in
five or ten minutes and park easily makes the job of
getting that yearly physical exam – or that special
diagnostic test you’ve been putting off – so much
simpler and easier.
“For patients all across the region, it’s like having
an urban specialty hospital located in your own
neighborhood.”
Specialized, Custom-Tailored Care —
Right In Dearborn Heights!
Like the cheerfully upbeat Dr. Elder, downtown
DMC specialists from a wide array of healthcare
fields are dedicated to providing the very latest, cut-
ting-edge medical services to patients who visit the
Specialty Center, located at 23822 Ford Road in
Dearborn Heights.
Ob/gyn specialist Dr. Cristina Alfieri, a nationally
recognized researcher on pregnancy and women’s
reproductive health, is one of them. “The good
news about the Specialty Center is that we can
provide a full range of diagnostic and treatment
services for women,” says Dr.Alfieri,“and we can do
it right here onsite at Dearborn Heights.
“Whether it’s vitally important gynecological
screening – including such tests as pap smears for
cervical cancer – or managing a normal or abnor-
mal pregnancy throughout a patient’s term before
delivery, the Center makes this specialized care fully
available to all patients. And when a mother-to-be
drops by my office for a visit at the Center, she
knows she’s talking to an ob/gyn specialist . . . and
not just to a family practice physician who happens
to treat ob/gyn patients along with all the rest.
“I think that’s the real beauty of the Center’s ap-
proach to healthcare: the fact that we can offer our
patients all of the specialized, custom-tailored care
they’d get in a downtown specialty hospital – but
we can do it right here in the heart of Dearborn
Heights. When you combine the state-of-the-art
care available here with the convenience involved,
it’s just a win-win situation for everyone involved.”
Among the other specialists who now offer serv-
ices at the Center are practitioners in the following
healthcare fields:
• Bariatric Surgery (Ali Elhorr, M.D.)
• General Surgery (Einas Joseph, M.D.))
• Interventional Cardiology (Mahir Elder, M.D.)
• Obstetrics & Gynecology (Cristina Alfieri, M.D.)
• Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (Ali Bitar,
M.D.)
• Podiatry (Mohammad Khalil, D.P.M.)
• Gastroenterology (Firdous Siddiqui, M.D.)
• Sports Medicine (Steve Karageanes, D.O.)
• Urgent Care, provided by First Choice Urgent
Care, evenings/weekends/holidays (DMC Detroit
Receiving Hospital and DMC Sinai-Grace Hospital
ER Specialists)
To learn more about the many specialized
healthcare services now available at the DMC Spe-
cialty Center in Dearborn Heights, call: 313-274-
4793.
DMC brings downtown’s cutting-edge
healthcare services to super-convenient
“Specialty Center” in Dearborn Heights
...“it’s like having a specialty hospital in your own backyard!”
"When you combine the
state-of-the-art care
available here with the
convenience involved, it’s
just a win-win situation
for everyone involved."
