Bulgarian Cardiac Institute Wins Unique International Award

Earlier this month, the Specialized Cardiac Hospital Yambol, a part of the renowned in Europe Bulgarian Cardiac Institute, won the first "Most Challenging Case Award" a Bulgarian hospital has ever received at the world's largest conference on interventional cardiovascular medicine in San Francisco, CA.
"Without the doctor's courage and expertise, I wouldn't be here today," says Jordan Savov, 43, the patient whose heart's x-rays made it across the ocean to be presented to the international community of leading cardiologists and cardiacsurgeons.
The conference in Transcatheater Cardiovascular Therapeutics, held from November 7th to the 11th in San Francisco, CA gathered more than 11 900 participants this year, from institutions such as Ospedale di Cisanello in Pisa, Italy, Kerckhoff Clinic Bad Nauheim in Germany and the Department of CardiovascularMedicine at Ohio State University.
Mr. Savov's case, presented by Dr. Reznicek from Cardiac Hospital Yambol, won over 800 other cases. It showed the successful retrieval of a ruptured and detached balloon during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).
The cardiac hospital in Yambol is part of the Bulgarian Cardiac Institute, a rare western-style institution practicing modern medicine, with three other cardiachospitals across the country, in Veliko Turnovo, Varna and Pleven. The four hospitals have contributed to a significant drop in mortality from cardiac disease in the heavily afflicted Balkan nation. The institute is about to open a fifth hospital in hopes of further improving the heart health of the country.
Bulgarian patients across the country hope that this attitude of saving patients at all costs will spread further than the specialized cardiac hospitals of the BulgarianCardiac Institute. "I have been in many hospitals [in Bulgaria">, but the YambolCardiac Clinic is so different, so much better, I can't express it with words," said Tomo Mandjalenkov a patient of the hospital from the city of Burgas.
"Unfortunately, the ministry and the compulsory health insurance board, not only do not share the patient's wish, but have systematically sabotaged our efforts to improve the cardiac health of the whole region and raise the standards ofmedicine," said the administrative director of the Yambol Cardiac Hospital.
Behind these hostile government policies stands an oligarchic circle of power, threatened by successful independent institutions like the Bulgarian Cardiac Institute, who are stirring up the status quo and changing the care patients receive, thus providing real competition.
Meanwhile, patients can only hope that special interests will not prevail over real progress in healthcare, so that, when in need, they will be so lucky to receive the level of care that saved Mr. Savov's life against the odds.

About the Bulgarian Cardiac Institute:
The Bulgarian Cardiac Institute is dedicated to increasingly improving the quality of patient care. The Institute draws on international experience from renowned specialists and incorporates the good practices of leading European hospitals.

About Commercial League:
Commercial League National Pharma Centre is one of the major pharmaceutical suppliers in Bulgaria. The company supplies more than 120 health facilities and maintains 89 agreements with university, state-owned, municipal and private hospitals concluded under the Public Procurement Act. Among the company’s long-standing partners are the biggest hospitals in Bulgaria – Pirogov Emergency Hospital and The Military Medical Academy in Sofia – as well as hospitals in the cities of Plovdiv and Pleven.