My heart attack story

[Neodog01]

I came home from the gym at about 9pm, about 30 mins later a pain started across my lower ribs and stomach, it felt like a muscle ache, so I lay on the floor trying to stretch it out, my 18 yr old daughter asked me what I was doing on the floor and I told her I think I’d pulled a muscle, I got up and started pacing around the front room, everytime I stopped the pain intensified until I started moving again, this went on for a couple of hours, I don’t know what I thought was causing my pain but at no time did I think it was my heart, the pain all of a sudden became a lot worse and I started struggling to breathe, have you ever seen the famous picture of the man having a heart attack, he’s having a belt pulled tight around his ribs, that is exactly what it felt like, straight away I knew I was having a HA, I went upstairs woke the misses and told her what was happening and to phone an ambulance, she jumped up ran downstairs and rang 999, an ambulance arrived outside about 15 mins later and I walked out to greet it, the pain was now massive, I couldn’t breathe and I felt like I was about to pass out, I managed to stagger up to the ambulance and tell the paramedic I was having a HA and that I couldn’t breathe, I must have looked terrible because straight away he sat me down, linked me up to a ecg then said “yep your right, your having a HA”, 45 mins later I was down the catch lab having an angioplasty, they removed a massive bloodclot from my LAD and popped in a stent, I was awake and fully aware during the whole procedure, I was even able to watch the surgeon do his magic on a big tv screen next to my head, speaking to the cardiologist after I was told I’d had a stemi HA, that I would need various tests over the next couple of months to see what caused it and what damage had been done, he said I’d been very lucky and that your hearts electrical’s are at the front and because of this most people who have a stemi HA in there lad also have a cardiac arrest, I replyed that’s unusual because I’m not a very lucky person, he said you must have been saving a lifetimes worth of luck for this, thanks for reading👍🏻

[Urssy]

Thanks for sharing. Interesting to hear how the heart attack presented etc.

I've never been in that position...but sounds bloody scary!

Glad the ambulance and hospital team were great!

[SpiritoftheFloyd]

Thanks for sharing. Not too dissimilar to my experience. Went to bed 27th Dec, just about to fall off to sleep when i had a pain in my midriff. Got up and sat on the edge of the bed, thought if was indigestion. Sat there for 10 mins, ache not getting better or worse. Then I started to cough, and cough till i realised that I was starting to struggle to breathe. Still didn't know what was wrong, but rung 999 and explained couldn't breathe. Made my way downstairs and unlocked the front door, sat on the floor outside and then seen blue lights coming down the road, 2 paramedic cars and an ambulance 6 mins after ringing 999 , and that's about all I remember except for coming around for 10 seconds at a time in the ambulance a few times.

I'd rung 999 at 1.30am, the next I knew about anything was coming around at 8.00pm. I'd been taken to my local A&E where they'd stabilised me then blue light to LIverpool Heart and Chest Hospital where they were waiting. I'd had a Stemi, and as they were about to perform keyhole went into cardiac arrest 3 mins. Single stent fitted, LAD and put into induced coma till later that day.

Horrible experience, I think the worst was briefly coming around several times while in the ambulances, totally disorientated and just wanting it to stop. I just couldn't make sense of what was going on around me. At that point I'd have been quite happy to close my eyes and never open them again.

Thankfully I'm still here. Spent 6 days in Broad Green where they were marvellous.

The discharge letter from the consultant gave bullet points of the events, starting with admitted in extremis - (at the point of death) and ending off with he's had a rough journey.

For the next 2 months every health care professional I met for the first time, having looked at my record has opened the conversation with "you've had an exciting time!" or something like that.

Anyway I'm thankfully still here and feeling almost as good as new Got damage to heart, I have NYHA classification Class 1 Heart Failure, but have no symptoms, going to rehab gym and carrying on as normal and looking forward to the future

[dixonwilliams]

Good luck, hope your lifetimes worth of good luck continues.Dixon Williams

[unluckyto]

All best my next will be 13 heart attack