<story><title>Just had a heart attack</title><text>In the ICU at UNC hospital in chapel hill.  Had emergency surgery and it looks like I&amp;#x27;ll be OK.&lt;p&gt;Wish I had some deep insights to share as a result but right now all I can really say is&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;If you start feeling chest pains, don&amp;#x27;t hesitate to call 911. If I&amp;#x27;d waited much longer I probably wouldn&amp;#x27;t be here to send this.  Learn the warning signs and call 911 if in doubt.&amp;quot;</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>robbiep</author><text>Doctor here.
The &amp;#x27;typical&amp;#x27; signs of a heart attack are chest pain usually described as dull, heavy or tight, with radiation to the arm(s) and neck.
The patient often also complains of diaphoresis (sweating) , shortness of breath and perhaps weakness.&lt;p&gt;&amp;#x27;Typical&amp;#x27; signs do not present in everyone: in particular diabetics are at increased risk of having &amp;#x27;silent&amp;#x27; heart attacks,
And chest pain that is not typical may also be a heart attack.&lt;p&gt;An ECG can rapidly demonstrate that a patient is having a heart attack or as we call them myocardial infarcts, and excellent intervention is often possible.&lt;p&gt;If the above condition&amp;#x2F;pain is experienced and there is not a clear ECG picture of a heart attack troponin levels are taken at 6 hrs, an increase f which will demonstrate that there was cardiac specific muscle damage.&lt;p&gt;Without wanting to alarm anyone, there is in the US 250,000 sudden cardiac deaths a year, almost all from a coronary artery called the left main blocking: this vessel supplies a huge percentage of the heart muscle and when it blocks there is no warning and the heart doesn&amp;#x27;t have enough fuel to keep pumping.. These patients unfortunately almost all dead on arrival.
There is very little that can be done to predict this as their first episode of chest pain usually results in death within minutes, and there are rarely indications that the patient is at risk of such a problem.</text></item><item><author>M4v3R</author><text>Can someone with some medical experience write about what are exactly the warning signs for a heart attack?&lt;p&gt;While it&amp;#x27;s definitely wise to call 911 when in doubt, it&amp;#x27;s good to have own understanding first so we don&amp;#x27;t ignore the symptoms AND don&amp;#x27;t flood 911 with false problems.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>MrJagil</author><text>One problem with this is that, I, as an individual suffering from anxiety, &amp;quot;regularly&amp;quot; suffer form chest pains.&lt;p&gt;This often spirals into the terrible cycle of anxiety -&amp;gt; chest pains -&amp;gt; anxiety about the chest pains being a heart attack.&lt;p&gt;I can only assume that the chest pains will be different and more severe if I should ever have a heart attack.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.calmclinic.com/anxiety/symptoms/chest-pain&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.calmclinic.com&amp;#x2F;anxiety&amp;#x2F;symptoms&amp;#x2F;chest-pain&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Just had a heart attack</title><text>In the ICU at UNC hospital in chapel hill.  Had emergency surgery and it looks like I&amp;#x27;ll be OK.&lt;p&gt;Wish I had some deep insights to share as a result but right now all I can really say is&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;If you start feeling chest pains, don&amp;#x27;t hesitate to call 911. If I&amp;#x27;d waited much longer I probably wouldn&amp;#x27;t be here to send this.  Learn the warning signs and call 911 if in doubt.&amp;quot;</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>robbiep</author><text>Doctor here.
The &amp;#x27;typical&amp;#x27; signs of a heart attack are chest pain usually described as dull, heavy or tight, with radiation to the arm(s) and neck.
The patient often also complains of diaphoresis (sweating) , shortness of breath and perhaps weakness.&lt;p&gt;&amp;#x27;Typical&amp;#x27; signs do not present in everyone: in particular diabetics are at increased risk of having &amp;#x27;silent&amp;#x27; heart attacks,
And chest pain that is not typical may also be a heart attack.&lt;p&gt;An ECG can rapidly demonstrate that a patient is having a heart attack or as we call them myocardial infarcts, and excellent intervention is often possible.&lt;p&gt;If the above condition&amp;#x2F;pain is experienced and there is not a clear ECG picture of a heart attack troponin levels are taken at 6 hrs, an increase f which will demonstrate that there was cardiac specific muscle damage.&lt;p&gt;Without wanting to alarm anyone, there is in the US 250,000 sudden cardiac deaths a year, almost all from a coronary artery called the left main blocking: this vessel supplies a huge percentage of the heart muscle and when it blocks there is no warning and the heart doesn&amp;#x27;t have enough fuel to keep pumping.. These patients unfortunately almost all dead on arrival.
There is very little that can be done to predict this as their first episode of chest pain usually results in death within minutes, and there are rarely indications that the patient is at risk of such a problem.</text></item><item><author>M4v3R</author><text>Can someone with some medical experience write about what are exactly the warning signs for a heart attack?&lt;p&gt;While it&amp;#x27;s definitely wise to call 911 when in doubt, it&amp;#x27;s good to have own understanding first so we don&amp;#x27;t ignore the symptoms AND don&amp;#x27;t flood 911 with false problems.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>werid</author><text>&amp;gt; The &amp;#x27;typical&amp;#x27; signs of a heart attack are chest pain usually described as dull, heavy or tight, with radiation to the arm(s) and neck. The patient often also complains of diaphoresis (sweating) , shortness of breath and perhaps weakness.&lt;p&gt;This is mostly for men, right? I&amp;#x27;ve read previously that the symptoms for women are quite different.</text></comment>