HEART ATTACK. SERIOUS. ALL PLEASE READ.

[Airspeed]

Hi All,
Just three Fridays back, my wife's energetic and enthusiastic brother died of a heart attack. He was a very young 81, and died before his time.
The tragedy is, he did not recognise the signs for hours.
According to the Heart Foundation website, pains in the jaw, neck, shoulder, between the shoulder blades, in the arm, are all indicators of a forthcoming attack. I have heard confirmation of these symptoms from other survivors.

BUT....

On the day, my brother in law had an aching hip and lower back. He went out for a haircut, during which he was cold and sweating extensively. He returned home, had a hot shower and a back massage. Sitting in a lounge chair and laying on the bed gave no relief. The pain moved to his groin. He had vomitted a couple of times. Unbelievably, though he lived less than two minutes drive from hospital, he and his wife did nothing until the pain moved to his chest. He died in agony, thrashing about while the ambulance officers tried to help. The paramedics arrived with more equipment, but could not revive him.

A week after his death, I was in a doctor's waiting room not far from the brother in law's home; they had a TV type screen running a slideshow...up came "DO YOU KNOW THE SIGNS OF A HEART ATTACK? Cold sweat, Vomiting or nausea, Unexplained severe pain....." I thought "if only he'd read that..."

I'm still quite emotional about this, and may not have worded it particularly well, but for your sake and those in your circle, please pass this on. It could save a life.

[Steve M]

Apologies duplicate post

[Steve M]

Mike
Very sorry to hear of your loss.

I work as a Police Officer in Rural Devon and our area has a high percentage of retired residents. Unfortunately we have a number of such calls to sudden deaths whereby people have not realised what is happening to them.

The British Heart Foundation has a wealth of material on their site and a very useful video is called "Watch Your Own Heart Attack". This is a very graphic account of what to expect in the event of an attack.

The Rotray club I belong to also delivers the BHF Heartstart programme free to groups in our area. The course lasts about 2 hours and covers dealing with an unconscious breathing casualty (Recovery Position) and then Unconscious non breathing casualty (CPR). The first two parts are video tutorials followed by a demonstration then practical using manikins. The second half of the course is video based dealing with recognising the signs and symptoms of a heart attack, choking and bleeding followed by an input on AED's (Defibrillators).

As our club's training supervisor I can thoroughly reccomend it to anyone and the input is pitched at the lay person so no one will be baffled by medical terms. As I mentioned earlier the course is free and there will be a link on the BHF site for contacts in each area if you are interested in a course.

In the 2 years we have been delivering the course our Rotary club has tought about 300 people including Ramblers. Walk leaders, Hospital car drivers,and even our local prtivately run Coastguard rescue boat crew.

Several parishes are also funding defibrillators through our local ambulance service and these are being placed in various easy to reach locatins in the area. They will also provide training in their use and aftercare for anyone needing it after havin g to use one.

The message is getting out but more eneds to be done to raise awareness. I sometimes think that we are all of the "It won't happen to me" mind set and hope when something like this is happening it will go away and it can't be a heart attack.

I would stress from the point of view of any of the emergency services that we would rather attend a false alarm and find that everything is OK than not get a call and be too late.

Again please accept my condolences but I hope you can get some comfort from the knowledge that there are thinge being done to increase awareness and teach people what to do if they are ever invoolved in such a situation.

Regards, Steve M

[Paul K]

Sincere condolences from me too, Mike. Thank you for the information which I must say is all new to me. Very important stuff, so thanks again.

[VEGAS]

Sorry for your loss Mike.

Some good advice you have provided there mate.

Your post reminded me of an incident last year. Where I gave first aid to a 46 year old lady who suffered a severe stroke right in front of me.

It was horrible and the scenes of the poor helpless woman on the floor will haunt me forever.

On a positive, your tips will no doubt be passed onto many others. On average one person tells ten others.

[Rich]

It put me back a fair bit, currently having treatment for heart problem this is no help to me at all on a site which used to give me better things to think of.

[Airspeed]

Sorry, Rich,
Look after yourself Mister, and just take it as some more useful information.

[VC10]

My father died after a heart attack. The ironic thing was the day after he died there was article in the paper describing the exact symptoms he had had for a day or two before he died.

Paul

[simondix]

I had a heart attack two years ago. I thought I had indigestion and walked about three miles round a bird reserve, then drove home from Norfolk to Worcestershire, still thinking it was.
I took a Gaviscon and went to bed. Woke up with pins and needles in arms and I knew what it was. It does not always appear to be a heart attack. Most people in the ward and at my rehab had not realised they were having one, so beware. Now a Stentorian and leading a normal life.

Good advice from everybody. Better to safe than sorry.

[Garry Russell]

Real problem her is that many of those symptoms can and often are other thing

Going to the doctor with these sorts of symptoms often mean them getting passed off and being treated for something else.

My in ability to eat and sever pain was put down to Gall Stones and after about six months I was referred to a specialist. When I was given an endoscope in Oct as a routine pre op examination to see if there was anything else needing doing they discovered the tumour that was probably only weeks away from killing me.

I had an uncle, a few years ago now, that went repeatedly to the doctor with symptons of chest pains, heart burn pins and needles, breathlessness and numbness plus severe headaches.

They said his sinuses needed draining and while they were giving him the pre med he had a massive heart attack and died.

The symptoms, including the headaches were actually caused by a disease which meant his arteries were narrow and those of a man in his nineties...he was 33.

He has the symptoms..he told them, they ignored it's true significance.