Heart attack question (non-FAA pilot medical related question)

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Unregistered

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This is not an FAA pilot medical question.

I read about the signs of having a heart attack online, like chest pain for example. But this question goes out to the people who had a heart attack and survived.

What did the heart attack feel like?

How long did it take for you to realize and get help that you were having a heart attack?

Is it true that some people do not choose to call for help right away since they don't know if they are really having a heart attack or that they do not want to make a big fuss or deal out of it?

I read about these signs online, but never knew what it felt like. Unless there is a heart attack simulator to simulate what a heart attack feels like and know when you are actually having a heart attack, I guess the only want to know if you had a heart attack is to experience it.
 
I always wonder if a Pilot is having a Heart attack while flying, could the person still land the airplane safely or is the flight doomed given there is no pilot on Board. Same as with a stroke.
 
Many different symptoms possible including zero symptoms; google "silent MI". So, yes, in many cases a pilot having a heart attack could safely land the plane; in other cases, it could result in sudden death regardless if there were another pilot onboard.
 
Unregistered said:
This is not an FAA pilot medical question.

I read about the signs of having a heart attack online, like chest pain for example. But this question goes out to the people who had a heart attack and survived.

What did the heart attack feel like?

How long did it take for you to realize and get help that you were having a heart attack?

Is it true that some people do not choose to call for help right away since they don't know if they are really having a heart attack or that they do not want to make a big fuss or deal out of it?

I read about these signs online, but never knew what it felt like. Unless there is a heart attack simulator to simulate what a heart attack feels like and know when you are actually having a heart attack, I guess the only want to know if you had a heart attack is to experience it.
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Sheesh. Are you trying to put me out of a job? Ultimately a physician should be the one to differentiate a possible heart attack from other causes of symptoms including chest discomfort. More later when I have the time.
 
My greatgrandfather had heart attacks. During them, he said they felt merely like a case of indigestion.
 
Zeldman said:
Fred Sanford might be a bad example.
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Those who witnessed his real heart attack though he was joking.

On October 11, 1991, during a break from rehearsals for The Royal Family, he suffered a heart attack on the set.[14][15] According to Joshua Rich at Entertainment Weekly, "It was an end so ironic that for a brief moment cast mates figured Foxx — whose 70s TV character often faked heart attacks — was kidding when he grabbed a chair and fell to the floor."[16] Foxx was taken to Queen Of Angels Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, where he died that evening http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redd_Foxx


 
I can give you one data point.

Yes, I put off seeing a doctor for a few days because I didn't know for sure it was an impending heart attack, and didn't want to complicate or screw up my FAA medical if it wasn't. I had discomfort that felt like indigestion or a vague feeling of panic, depending on the day, and it would come and go.

When it hit for real it was a growing discomfort in my chest, which within a few minutes got to the point where I was literally in tears. I went from not noticing it to definitely knowing something was very wrong within a few minutes. It hurt like a *****. All chest, there was no radiating pain in the shoulder or arm.

I was driving at the time and headed for an ER. If I had been flying and within 15 minutes of any airport or suitably flat spot I would have been able to get the plane on the ground. Not gracefully, perhaps, but safely. It hurt but was not debilitating nor did I pass out.
 
Unregistered said:
I can give you one data point.

Yes, I put off seeing a doctor for a few days because I didn't know for sure it was an impending heart attack, and didn't want to complicate or screw up my FAA medical if it wasn't. I had discomfort that felt like indigestion or a vague feeling of panic, depending on the day, and it would come and go.

When it hit for real it was a growing discomfort in my chest, which within a few minutes got to the point where I was literally in tears. I went from not noticing it to definitely knowing something was very wrong within a few minutes. It hurt like a *****. All chest, there was no radiating pain in the shoulder or arm.

I was driving at the time and headed for an ER. If I had been flying and within 15 minutes of any airport or suitably flat spot I would have been able to get the plane on the ground. Not gracefully, perhaps, but safely. It hurt but was not debilitating nor did I pass out.
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This is not an optimal diagnostic strategy and not uncommonly results in death which can answer the question. Delay in seeking care can also result in a very large heart attack. Here what happened to an individual who thought the answer to a medical question could be obtained online. Sound familiar?

A man was found dead in the parking lot of Grand Valley State University, Michigan, just hours after he had used a computer at the campus to research symptoms of a heart attack. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2430893/Man-39-heart-attack-dies-car-just-hours-Googling-symptoms-university-computer.html

So what happened?
 
I have witnessed all manner of heart attacks (I was a paramedic). The level of incapacitation has run everywhere from being very uncomfortable to almost incapacitated to unconscious. I've also run 12-leads on people and seen evidence of an infaction where the patients now appeared normal.

It could be something else, but to be safe we always treat chest pains and radiating arm pains as being cardiac (monitor, start IV, call for a consult, transport). I've been the on the receiving end of that. My Suburban was struck by a moving van and sent backwards 20 feet and spun around 80 degrees (this I got from the Sheriff investigating the accident...figured the truck was going well in excess of the 25MPH speed limit). Pretty much sure all the injury was taking the shoulder harness across my chest, but I let paramedic Fred do the entire number on me.
 
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Unregistered said:
This is not an FAA pilot medical question.

I read about the signs of having a heart attack online, like chest pain for example. But this question goes out to the people who had a heart attack and survived.

What did the heart attack feel like?

How long did it take for you to realize and get help that you were having a heart attack?

Is it true that some people do not choose to call for help right away since they don't know if they are really having a heart attack or that they do not want to make a big fuss or deal out of it?

I read about these signs online, but never knew what it felt like. Unless there is a heart attack simulator to simulate what a heart attack feels like and know when you are actually having a heart attack, I guess the only want to know if you had a heart attack is to experience it.
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There is, it's called a crack pipe.
 
I've listened to many many docs - and those who have had them - and been unable to distinguish the pain from something else when its not without a doubt.

They have all told me that the discomfort is inside. That might be a small distinction but understand that all of us have strained a chest muscle doing something - and that is a more or less surface pain. You can distinguish the pain in that it is not below the rib cage - you can tell for example that heartburn is internal - it feels below the rib cage and is very sharp from the acid, whereas strains are above in the muscle.

Start paying attention to your body. . . . you can easily tell when where a pain is coming from.
 
comanchepilot said:
I've listened to many many docs - and those who have had them - and been unable to distinguish the pain from something else when its not without a doubt.

They have all told me that the discomfort is inside. That might be a small distinction but understand that all of us have strained a chest muscle doing something - and that is a more or less surface pain. You can distinguish the pain in that it is not below the rib cage - you can tell for example that heartburn is internal - it feels below the rib cage and is very sharp from the acid, whereas strains are above in the muscle.

Start paying attention to your body. . . . you can easily tell when where a pain is coming from.
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I wish I could. One of the questions on my med school oral exam was to discuss the many causes of chest pain. It's not something you can diagnose on yourself reliably.
 
I had a friend who started "that pain" the day before New Year's a couple years ago. He refused to go, New Year's eve he came to my house, but left early, he didn't say a word, but still had the pain. New Year's day, you guessed it, still had the pain. The next day, he got up to go to work, still had the pain. While he was getting ready for work his wife had a conniption and he agreed to go. Long story short, the widow maker artery was like 98% blocked and the doctor said he was hours away from a massive heart attack. They stented him and he is fine and swears he won't wait if it happens. He was very lucky, don't wait.
 
Hi, heart attack is one of the most common sickness we may know nowadays and it is more experience by women at age over 50 years rather than men. It is usually characterize by chest pain and shortness of breath. For what I know, a person who has this ailment must not get tired and must maintain a good diet and a regular exercise.
 
PaulS said:
I had a friend who started "that pain" the day before New Year's a couple years ago. He refused to go, New Year's eve he came to my house, but left early, he didn't say a word, but still had the pain. New Year's day, you guessed it, still had the pain. The next day, he got up to go to work, still had the pain. While he was getting ready for work his wife had a conniption and he agreed to go. Long story short, the widow maker artery was like 98% blocked and the doctor said he was hours away from a massive heart attack. They stented him and he is fine and swears he won't wait if it happens. He was very lucky, don't wait.
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A friend of mine did the same thing. Except he waited.

He was 31. I still miss him.
 
Somewhere- I'm sure the news headlines said
" TV star Foxx cries wolf and dies of heart attack"






Gary F said:
Those who witnessed his real heart attack though he was joking.

On October 11, 1991, during a break from rehearsals for The Royal Family, he suffered a heart attack on the set.[14][15] According to Joshua Rich at Entertainment Weekly, "It was an end so ironic that for a brief moment cast mates figured Foxx — whose 70s TV character often faked heart attacks — was kidding when he grabbed a chair and fell to the floor."[16] Foxx was taken to Queen Of Angels Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, where he died that evening http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redd_Foxx


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evapilotaz said:
I always wonder if a Pilot is having a Heart attack while flying, could the person still land the airplane safely or is the flight doomed given there is no pilot on Board. Same as with a stroke.
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Are you confusing a myocardial infarction with a cardiac arrest? Both are possibilities that a lay person would consider a "heart attack".

Cardiac arrest, no. the pilot would be incapacitated and dying.

myocardial infarction? maybe. some patients never even have symptoms at the time of the infarct. So called Silent MI.

Depending on the nature of the stroke, the pilot may or may not be incapacitated.
 
I'll tell my story in the hope that it might save someone else's life. Went to lunch with some colleagues. Got back to the office and started to feel a little queezy. Decided to go home and work from there. Drove one block from the office and stopped at a red traffic light. Suddenly felt like someone hit me across the chest with a baseball bat and just kept hitting. This is wrong, I thought. I knew there was a fire station just two blocks away so I immediately headed for the station. Parked the car in the station lot and walked up to the door which was locked so I rang the doorbell. Nobody home! Turns out, the crew was a mile away on a training exercise with their new fire boat (station next to a lake). So I sat down in front of the door and called 911 on my cell phone.

911 operator kept me on the phone while the crew rushed back to their own station code 3. They scooped me up and off we went to the nearest chest pain center all wired up with IVs and nitroglycerin under my tongue. The nitro provided some relief, not a good sign.

The pain radiated across my chest, down my arm and up to my face. All classic presentation.

On the gurney in the ER, the duty cardiologist leans over me with the EKG strip in his hand and says, "doesn't look good". He immediately turns away and down the hall he trots. I'm lying there looking up at the neon lights thinking, OK, this is it. Anger wells up in me. Death is not supposed to be this pedestrian! There should be noise and spectacle.

Called my wife. Told her I was at the hospital, feeling a bit off. Didn't want her to panic on drive over. She asked if she should leave her office and come over. Suggested that would help. At this point it's been about 20 minutes since I left the office. Still don't believe it's a heart attack.

Within minutes I'm in the cath lab and the cardiologist is decked out like a scene from Andromeda Strain. He turns the monitor so I can see. Dye goes in and he says, "there it is". Moments later the angioplasty is inflated, stent installed and immediately after it is deflated all the pain stops. Now I believe.

Grounded for almost a year. Stress tests and blood labs now part of every annual routine for 3rd class medical. Special Issuance took 3 months after paperwork submitted to OKC. Did this each year for two years. In 3rd year FAA decides I can have AME Assisted SI. That is now my annual ritual. Almost feel like a normal pilot.

Final diagnosis was 90% occlusion of the circumflex artery. Because of prompt treatment, very little damage to heart muscle. Some enzymes were present so there was some damage but it is too little to detect with imaging or EKG.

Have cut out as much saturated fat from diet as possible (no red meat, nor pork, nor fowl). Most protein now comes from fish and legumes. High cholesterol foods also out. Exercise by swimming but admit always could use more.

Cardiologists now says the only evidence that I've had an MI is the paper trail. Now that I know what it feels like I don't worry too much about not recognizing it. Main concern is whether there is ready access to cath labs. Not a problem in urban areas but we like to spend time in the wilderness, an uneasy trade-off but we make it.

Wife and I are both widowed. Now after my MI, we have just learned to live as hard as we can. We love to fly to interesting places. We hug the kids hard (all adults now) and I have developed a profound appreciation for Trappist ales.
 
Thanks for sharing your story. Glad you got timely help and good results. Every day is a gift.
 
OP here again.

I am looking to schedule a physical exam (not the FAA medical) soon, and I am wondering would a normal physical exam at the doctor's office be enough detect something out of the ordinary with my heart or cardiovascular system?

Or would I need a more comprehensive testing and monitoring to see if there is anything wrong with my heart or cardiovascular system?

Just wondering.
 
Unregistered said:
OP here again.

I am looking to schedule a physical exam (not the FAA medical) soon, and I am wondering would a normal physical exam at the doctor's office be enough detect something out of the ordinary with my heart or cardiovascular system?

Or would I need a more comprehensive testing and monitoring to see if there is anything wrong with my heart or cardiovascular system?

Just wondering.
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It's a month and a half after your original post and no doctor yet? Not a good move in that being a puss about it by not going to the doctor can cost you your life or you could end up handicapped if it something serious. I'm thinking since you are posting again you are getting more symptoms. You should call your doctor's office, tell them what's going on and do what they say. If you are having chest pains call 911. I hope you are ok.
 
Unregistered said:
OP here again.

I am looking to schedule a physical exam (not the FAA medical) soon, and I am wondering would a normal physical exam at the doctor's office be enough detect something out of the ordinary with my heart or cardiovascular system?

Or would I need a more comprehensive testing and monitoring to see if there is anything wrong with my heart or cardiovascular system?

Just wondering.
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No. Routine physicals are next to worthless for detecting underlying coronary artery disease unless the physicians elicits suspicious symptoms that the patient has neglected to report.

Maybe. Depends on several issues including symptoms, presence or absence of multiple risk factors and known medical problems. Screening asymptomatic patients for coronary artery disease is controversial. In general it is more important to address modifiable risk factors (smoking, overweight, diabetes or insulin resistance, hypertension, etc) than look for asymptomatic coronary artery disease.
 
Unregistered said:
I am looking to schedule a physical exam (not the FAA medical) soon, and I am wondering would a normal physical exam at the doctor's office be enough detect something out of the ordinary with my heart or cardiovascular system?

Or would I need a more comprehensive testing and monitoring to see if there is anything wrong with my heart or cardiovascular system?
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A normal physical won't show squat in most cases; I had had one not long ago and been pronounced sound and healthy. An EKG might show if you have a serious issue, I don't know. A treadmill stress echo might be helpful, an MRI or nuclear stress test probably would, or a cardiac cath would show whatever you want to know. Most of that is pretty extreme if you don't already suspect there is a problem, though. I'm no doctor, if you want the straight dope talk to a cardiologist.

And for GaryF: My symptoms in the few days preceding my MI were not really enough to cause alarm, just enough to make me wonder what was up. It could have been any number of things, but it turned out to be an impending MI. There were numerous things in the weeks before the event that, in hindsight, were easily explained by the fact that I was about to have a heart attack. None were all that out of the ordinary and there were plenty of other, more likely explanations for any and all of them. But by God, the next time I start getting this old I'll do a better job of it.
 
Unregistered said:
A normal physical won't show squat in most cases; I had had one not long ago and been pronounced sound and healthy. An EKG might show if you have a serious issue, I don't know. A treadmill stress echo might be helpful, an MRI or nuclear stress test probably would, or a cardiac cath would show whatever you want to know. Most of that is pretty extreme if you don't already suspect there is a problem, though. I'm no doctor, if you want the straight dope talk to a cardiologist.
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I agree with what you wrote here but then it can get complicated. More later when I have the time.
Unregistered said:
And for GaryF: My symptoms in the few days preceding my MI were not really enough to cause alarm, just enough to make me wonder what was up. It could have been any number of things, but it turned out to be an impending MI. There were numerous things in the weeks before the event that, in hindsight, were easily explained by the fact that I was about to have a heart attack. None were all that out of the ordinary and there were plenty of other, more likely explanations for any and all of them. But by God, the next time I start getting this old I'll do a better job of it.
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A physician may have recognized the significance of these symptoms.
 
Unregistered said:
This is not an FAA pilot medical question.

I read about the signs of having a heart attack online, like chest pain for example. But this question goes out to the people who had a heart attack and survived.

What did the heart attack feel like?

How long did it take for you to realize and get help that you were having a heart attack?

Is it true that some people do not choose to call for help right away since they don't know if they are really having a heart attack or that they do not want to make a big fuss or deal out of it?

I read about these signs online, but never knew what it felt like. Unless there is a heart attack simulator to simulate what a heart attack feels like and know when you are actually having a heart attack, I guess the only want to know if you had a heart attack is to experience it.
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Some people have no pain or symptoms at all at the time.
 
Doggtyred said:
Some people have no pain or symptoms at all at the time.
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Occasionally diabetics will have minimal or no chest discomfort but most of the time person has symptoms which are attributed to another illness such as indigestion or a virus. Denial can cause a person to ignore fairly typical symptoms.
 
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