Heart attack!!
What to do…

By Stanford Conway
Editor-in-Chief-SKNVibes.com

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - AFTER a lengthy and heated debate among colleagues on the causes of a heart attack, I was rather surprised to find an email sent by a friend, who resides in Newtown, informing on the same subject and requesting the information be passed on to others.

However, before going into details on the information received, a research on heart attack and why it occurs was done and I came up with the undermentioned.

One school of thought states that a heart attack occurs when blood flow to a section of heart muscle becomes blocked. If the flow of blood isn’t restored quickly, the section of heart muscle becomes damaged from lack of oxygen and begins to die.

Additionally, it states that heart attacks occur most often as a result of a condition called coronary artery disease (CAD). In CAD, a fatty material called plaque builds up over many years on the inside walls of the coronary arteries (the arteries that supply blood and oxygen to one’s heart).

Eventually, an area of plaque can rupture, causing a blood clot to form on the surface of the plaque. If the clot becomes large enough, it can mostly or completely block the flow of oxygen-rich blood to the part of the heart muscle fed by the artery.

Another school of thought states that heart attack is known in medicine as an (acute) myocardial infarction (AMI or MI) and occurs when the blood supply to part of the heart is interrupted. 

This is most commonly due to occlusion (blockage) of a coronary artery following the rupture of a vulnerable atherosclerotic plaque, which is an unstable collection of lipids (like cholesterol) and white blood cells (especially macrophages) in the wall of an artery. The resulting ischemia (restriction in blood supply) and oxygen shortage, if left untreated for a sufficient period, can cause damage and/or death (infarction) of heart muscle tissue (myocardium).

This school of thought explains that classical symptoms of acute myocardial infarction include sudden chest pain (typically radiating to the left arm or left side of the neck), shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, palpitations, sweating, and anxiety (often described as a sense of impending doom).

Further, it notes, women may experience fewer typical symptoms than men, most commonly shortness of breath, weakness, a feeling of indigestion, and fatigue. Approximately one quarter of all myocardial infarctions are silent…without chest pain or other symptoms.   ~~Adz:Left~~

The email provided information on what an individual should do if he/she is alone, either at home or driving, or walking home from work, and suddenly start experiencing severe pain in their chest that starts to radiate out into their arm and up into their jaw.

These are symptoms of a heart attack and though one may be trained in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), one may not be able to perform it on oneself. Therefore, the following should be done when one is alone until help arrives.

How to survive a heart attack when alone?

Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack, without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds before losing consciousness.
What to do.

Do not panic, but start coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and prolonged as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest. Sputum is matter, as saliva mixed with mucus or pus.

A breath and cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let-up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.

Deep breaths get oxy gen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm and, in this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital.

The email further states that individuals must never think they are not prone to heart attack because their age is less than 25 or 30. “Nowadays,” the email added, “due to the change in life style, heart attack is found among people of all age groups.”
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