What to do if you think you might be having a heart attack.

Most heart attacks-- myocardial infarctions occur when a portion of the heart can’t get enough oxygen and it is dying.  One of the arteries, the pipe that brings blood to part of the ventricle is blocked, and the chamber that pumps the blood to the body and brain stops receiving oxygen. 

Arteries are long muscular tubes with smooth inner linings.  As we age fatty plaques, “speed bumps” develop.  Most heart attacks start when one of the plaques rupture and gunk starts spilling out.  Platelets then cover the opening and a clot forms.  If the clot is large enough to prevent blood flow, and a second (collateral) artery doesn’t supply blood to the area, a portion of the heart muscle dies.  Then blood stops flowing to the body and brain.

At times the electrical system of the heart is disrupted. The muscular fibrils that normally contract simultaneously, begin to quiver and twitch erratically and the ventricle stops pumping blood.  We call it ventricular fibrillation.

The person who is afflicted commonly develops chest pressure or discomfort or light headedness.  Sometimes he or she sweats or just feels bad.  

(Women may feel a persistent pain in the back, neck, jaw, or even soldier blades.  Before or during a heart attack, they are also more likely to experience fatigue, sweating, and nausea, as well as indigestion that might be mistaken for heartburn. https://www.dukehealth.org/blog/heart-attack-symptoms-women-need-know)

In 21st century America, if a person having a heart attack gets to an appropriate hospital quickly enough, the occluded artery can be opened and lives and hearts can be saved.  Many of our hospitals have special units where skilled doctors are always available.  They can urgently insert a catheter (through an artery in the groin) and, using fluoroscopy, guide it to the occluded blood vessel.  The cardiologist can then balloon the narrowed artery open, and insert a stent.  Stents are medicated tubes that keep blood vessels open and allow blood to flow through a narrowed area in an artery.  with proper urgent treatment it's possible to prevent damage to the heart muscle, to "cure" heart attacks. 

Key point

Denial is more than a river in Africa.  if you develop a new kind of chest pain, abdominal pain, dizziness, or if feels like something is seriously wrong call 911.  Some hospitals have emergency cath units.  Others don’t.  The paramedics in the ambulances usually know which hospital to take you to.  If your heart begins to fibrillate on the way to the hospital they can shock the heart and save your life. 

footnote:  I decided to share part of the Mayo Clinic web site's approach to the symptoms women have when they are having a heart attack: 

"The most common heart attack symptom in women is the same as in men — some type of chest pain, pressure or discomfort that lasts more than a few minutes or comes and goes.

But chest pain is not always severe or even the most noticeable symptom, particularly in women. Women often describe heart attack pain as pressure or tightness. And it's possible to have a heart attack without chest pain.

Women are more likely than men to have heart attack symptoms unrelated to chest pain, such as:


 

 

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