Lea Manto-Beltran, Senior Staff Writer
The doctors, nurses and staff of the Subic Heart Center PHOTO BY RENE DILAN
February is officially the “heart month.” Everyone around the world celebrates this month with romance, but for medical practitioners, February is when doctors take more time to remind patients to take care of their beating organ.
According to the Department of Health, cases of heart-related diseases continue to rise in the Philippines, and are still the number one cause of death among Filipinos.
In response to this growing need for heart treatments in the northern part of Luzon, the Subic Heart Center (SHC) offers world-class procedures done by equally world-class doctors like thoracic and cardiovascular surgeons, among others.
Subic Heart Center—the Cardiovascular Catherization and Intervention Unit of world-class tertiary private hospital George Dewey Medical and Wellness Center (GDMWC)—is headed by Dr. Michael John San Gabriel.
San Gabriel, who is backed with a 17-year experience as a cardiologist, performs Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA) procedure at the center. PTCA is a minimally invasive procedure to open up blocked coronary arteries to allow blood to circulate freely to the heart muscle.
Meanwhile, Dr. Pio V. Purino Jr. is a guest cardiovascular expert who performs Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG) surgery to treat patients with severe coronary heart disease (CHD).
A fairly new institution the SHC is considered a breakthrough development in the field of heart treatment. It is also hailed as an institution that provides access to patients in Northern Luzon for quality heart treatment without having to travel to hospitals in Manila like before.
“Subic Heart Center is considered the best hospital today here in Northern Luzon, which can offer any form of heart treatment. We have complete facilities, and a very supportive hospital administration,” says Dr. Purino Jr. who also serves as a training officer at the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery of the Philippine Heart Center; as well as the Thoracic Cardiovcular Surgery section chief of the University of Santo Tomas.