By Kimberly Hopson
L’Observateur

LULING – The River Region Chamber of Com merce presented a ri bbon cutting ceremony on Thursday evening for the opening of the new Cardiovascular Institute of the South in Luling.
Hospital staff, residents and community figures such as St. Charles Parish Pre sident V.J. St. Pierre Jr. came out to celebrate the occasion. The new facility, located inside of St. Charles Parish Hospital, will provide a full range of cardiology services to the St. Charles Parish community.
The clinic will operate five days a week, providing ultrasound, nuclear and treadmill services with the help of CIS cardiologist Dr. Chris Paris. The Houma naitve is a graduate of Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. Paris is board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, interventional cardiology and nuclear cardiology. He is a member of the American College of Cardiology, the Louisiana State Medical Society, the American College of Physicians and the American Academy Family of Physicians.
Paris said he is pleased to join the staff of CIS and that he will offer care with compassion and understanding for his patients. Since he is from a small community himself, the doctor said he also plans to take a more personal approach to prevention and cardiovascular protection.
“I’m excited to be involved. Everyone at the hospital has been very welcoming. There is a great need for cardiovascular care here, and I’m excited to be apart of it, and hopefully I can bring great things to the community,” said Paris.
In addition to the new facility, CIS has plans to complete a catheterization laboratory in the hospital by January 2014. Coupled with the fully-functional cardiology practice, the laboratory will enable the staff to perform interventional procedures, such as placing stents in the arteries of heart attack patients.
“They’re able to initiate tests that are important to the cardiovascular process. Having those services available five days a week is critical to any community but especially a growing community like Luling,” said Anne Kolwe, the marketing director of CIS.
“This is really important to the patient’s success rate. Every minute that can be saved with the heart improves the functionality of it. The more minutes lost, the more muscle is lost within the heart. Those minutes are very critical when someone is having a heart attack.”
To schedule an ap  pointment at the Luling location, call 985-308-1604 or toll free at 1-855-308-1604.