A DERBY professor has spoken of his involvement in treatments which have led to a massive reduction in deaths from heart attacks.
Since the 1970s, the number of deaths following heart attacks has dropped significantly.
One of the people at the forefront of the research that has earned these results is Derby-born heart surgeon Professor David Newby.
But the heart failure that often follows a heart attack is still having a terrible impact on people's lives.
The British Heart Foundation has launched its Mending Broken Hearts appeal to help pioneering research to aid people with heart failure.
Professor Newby said when he became a cardiologist about 20 years ago deaths from heart attacks were very common.
He said: "People used to be dying left, right and centre from heart attacks.
"But the reason people are living longer is that we've got much better using modern treatments which open up blocked arteries."
The BHF released figures today which showed that 71% in the East Midlands now survive a heart attack, compared to 66% eight years ago.
A study from the 1970s showed that two thirds of men and women aged between 65 and 69 died from their heart attack.
Professor Newby said these modern procedures involve inserting a catheter through a patient's wrist artery and pushing this all the way to their heart.
They can then insert a stent or small balloon to clear the blocked artery which has caused a heart attack.
He said: "At the end of a needle we can immediately make a patient feel better."
Professor Newby was born in Littleover and has been working for the British Heart Foundation for more than 20 years.
He is a BHF professor of cardiology and interventional cardiologist now working in Edinburgh.
He said although survival rates from heart attacks are much improved, the heart failure which follows a heart attack is still devastating lives.
He said: "When the heart muscle dies, after a heart attack, it leaves a scar.
"The heart is a pump made of muscle so when that becomes a scar it can't pump as hard."
The BHF's Mending Broken Hearts Appeal is aiming to help improve quality of life following heart failure .
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