Too little too late?

[Cherrycola1]

My father died quite suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack at 73 years of age on the 1st of December 2012.The sudden nature of this resulted in a post mortom the detailed findings of this were requested and received this morning.The outcome was that my dad had serious and extensive damage to his coronary arteries,something that did not surprise me in a cause and effect correlation.What does trouble me is that my dad had a heart attack of some severity when he was 53 and after a standard period of follow up from a cardiologist 'appears' to have spent a prolonged period under a GP who prescribed statins on the never never.While i am familiar with denial as part of the grief process and would not consider my father a healthy life style nut with no responsibility for managing his own health am i right in thinking he should have received some detailed and maybe exploratory health checks during that period.Fully intend to visit the Gp and be asking an array of questions.Thankyou for reading/offering advice/suggestions.

[smithy]

Hi cherrycola,

Sorry to hear about your dad.

I'm not a doctor just experienced.....my understanding is that as long as you are not getting symptoms (angina etc) then you won't see a cardiologist, after your initial check/procedures, as long as everything was deemed ok, though i could be wrong!!

Angina IMHO is a warning sign......lots of people do not get it and their first experience of CAD/CVD is the heart attack.

As i said i'm no doctor or expert, just a user of the system, who was 'lucky' enough to get the warning.

Good luck

Tony

[mags3003]

Hi Cherrycola,

So sorry, thoughts with you and your family.

I had a heart attack in 2011. The hospital followed up with a check up and then I was discharged into the care of my doctor.

I am afraid that the treatment your Dad received is the same, I get repeat prescriptions for statins and take aspirin and unless something is wrong you do not get regular checks.

Hope this answers some of your questions, take care xx Mags

[2squirrels]

My father died of a heart attack on 31st May, 1984. I was going on holiday with my husband and son but said I,wouldn't go unless he saw his Doctor first. He saw him on the Friday evening and he said he would like to think his own heart was as healthy at 35 years younger. To keep my father and me happy he was going to make a specialists appointment. He dropped dead of a massive heart attack 6 days later. The terrible grief gets less but the pain never goes. In spite oh this I hope you make the best of Christmas and have a healthy New Yeaxr. Keep an eye on your own heart and live a healthy lifestyle with a healthy diet.

[Cherrycola1]

I would like to thank everyone for their supportive and informative replies,means a lot.Even at this stage i gain some comfort from knowing that he was at The local British Legion he knew and loved surrounded by Friends when he collapsed.The wake up call is that i will place more scrutiny on looking after my own heart and get a cholesterol test done in the new year.

[DakCB-UK]

I think the big question is: was there family history? What happened to previous generations? If so, I'd hope there was further testing but wouldn't be surprised if not. If not, I don't know - not my situation.