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Emanuel Medical Center in Turlock will celebrate the grand opening of its new Cardiac Cath and Interventional Lab on April 10 with a family-friendly open house – and a really big heart.Visitors can take an incredible journey through the giant heart, walking through each of its chambers and seeing animation of blood flow, diagrams of different kinds of heart disease and disease-prevention tips.
“The heart is 15 feet by 20 feet and 9 feet high,” said Pennie Rorex, Emanuel’s vice president of corporate communication and marketing. “It’s built in six separate sections.”
After their trip through the heart, visitors can take a self-guided tour through Emanuel’s new Cardiovascular Services Department, seeing demonstrations of echocardiograms and a slideshow introducing them to interventional radiology treatments. They can also visit the state-of-the-art Cardiac Cath and Interventional Lab itself.
“For kids, the open house includes ‘Heart to Tail’ check-ups for their stuffed animals, so be sure to have them bring that favorite Teddy!” Rorex said. “Kids will also get stickers and the first 1,000 guests to arrive will receive a free gift to take home.”
The open house runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will open with Emanuel President and CEO John Sigsbury performing a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Heart-healthy snacks will be served throughout the event. Visitors should park in the lots off of Colorado and Olive avenues – behind the Emergency Department – instead of the front parking lot on Delbon Avenue. The big heart will be set up outside the hospital’s Garden Terrace cafeteria and the tour will begin there. Signs will point the way.
The Cardiac Cath and Interventional Lab is the jewel in Emanuel’s new Cardiovascular Services Department. It contains a Toshiba Infinix Interventional Angiography System, a high-tech piece of equipment that generates X-ray movies and lets doctors see inside a patient’s body and perform dozens of different procedures in a safer, more comfortable and less-invasive manner than ever before. After the open house, the lab will go into operation, bringing a new array of cardiac and interventional radiology treatments to Turlock.
“This is on the same level as our bringing comprehensive cancer care to the community,” said Emanuel Vice President of Professional Services Michael Iltis. “Heart disease is the country’s number one killer of both men and women, and this new lab and Cardiovascular Services Department bring state-of-the-art equipment and treatments to Turlock for the very first time.”
And what about the really big heart? After the open house, it will go into storage for a while but will come out again and be featured at the Stanislaus County Fair and other public events.