What to do if you get a heart attack

CHEST pain can be an early sign of an impending major heart attack. The classical chest pain —called angina pectoris — is a squeezing pain that starts in the centre of the chest and can radiate to the shoulders, left arm, face or back. Angina is your body’s way of telling that the heart — the very organ that pumps oxygenated pure blood to all organs — is itself being starved of oxygen-rich blood due to a blocked coronary artery (artery supplying blood to the heart).

However, the body’s message may not always be so clear. About one third of all heart attack patients feel no muscle pain at all. Angina may be replaced by a dull ache in the chest, a "heartburn" or acid reflux, a vice-like pressure in the chest, pain in a tooth, profuse sweating, nausea, light-headedness, fainting, palpitation or unexplained anxiety or no sensation at all the so called silent attack.

One of the most common conditions that is confused with a heart attack is midline lower chest burning pain due to the backflow of stomach acid into the food pipe — the so-called "heartburn" or "gas". However, the reverse also holds true, ie, a patient with a heart attack may confuse it with "gas" and not take timely treatment. The number of "gas" patients who land up on my operating table with preventable complications is just not funny. Timely action may have prevented these.

It is always best to err on the side of caution. Time may be money for some, but for a heart doctor and his patient time is muscle. The longer one waits before appropriate therapy the more heart muscle is lost.

The things to do if you think you are experiencing a heart attack (or even have a doubt about it) are:

* Stop whatever you are doing and call an emergency, a relative’s or a friend’s number.

* Driving yourself to hospital is not recommended.

* If you are alone on the highway or the road, stop the car, put the hazard-lights on and blow the horn continuously till someone comes.

* Avoid any physical exertion that could put more stress on your heart.

* If available, put a tablet of Sorbitrate (nitroglyceride) under your tongue. This provides temporary relief by dilating the narrowed coronary artery and also other vessels in the body so that the heart has to work less.

* Chew an Aspirin/Disprin (not Disprin Plus)/Ecosprin — this thins blood and prevents clotting that can lead to a major heart attack.

* You may at this stage suffer from a potentially fatal complication — namely, cardiac arrest. You may feel suddenly dizzy and may be about to faint. At this stage you have probably 10 seconds before losing consciousness.

The immediate treatment for this is cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in which you may be trained. But you cannot do it on yourself.

You may help yourself by 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. A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without letup till help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again. Deep breaths get oxygen 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.

* When you get to an emergency room, tell the staff that you may be having a heart attack. Make sure that the emergency is recognised. Insist that a specialist doctor attends to you right away. Faster access to life-saving treatment — clot busters, beta blockers, emergency angioplasty or surgery — increases the chances of survival.

Pay attention to even the smallest chest pain to avoid a major attack. A stitch in time does save nine!

Dr Harinder Singh Bedi, MCh
For Ayurveda, Alternative Herbal Remedies and high quality Ayurvedic Medicines visit www.ayurvediccure.com