My Heart Attack At Age 30 Every Heart Attack is Different. - Readers Share Their True Heart Attack Experiences Index of Other Heart Attack Stories My Heart Attack --"I Had Just Had The Best Day" My Heart Attack--"I Thought I Had Asthma" "They Gave My Husband Indigestion Medicine But He Was Having a Heart Attack" "I Thought It Was Just Nausea But I had a Heart Attack While Driving a Truck" My Heart Attack--"I Had a Silent Heart Attack" "My Job Drove Me to Have A Heart Attack at Age 37" This personal story was e-mailed to us by our reader from Sheffield, England July 1, 2008 By Ian Waterston Sheffield, England I was 30 years old, a smoker, working in corporate finance, and I was spending a snatched weekend climbing with a friend Bob in the English Lake District. I felt fantastic and had the previous day just been given a great new work assignment. I was living on adrenalin! I led the first relatively easy 100 foot climb, but near the top all my protection (what climbers place in the rock to stop them falling all the way to the ground if the fall off) fell out! So I was pretty terrified for a few moves. Still, I got to the top. Phew.. Back at the ground again, smoking yet another ciggy,, my left arm felt noticeably weird, but I was still able to do another climb. Then Bob suggested another, famous climb nearby. I felt unexpectedly edgy and anxious and I still couldn't work out why I had this odd pain in my left arm, but I agreed so long as he led and I followed. It was a 200 foot classic climb with a great final pitch, 80 feet long and slightly overhanging with good holds, and I congratulated Bob on leading it when I joined him at the top. As we were soaking in the great view in the sunlight and packing away our climbing gear a hugely painful tightening wrapped itself around my chests and squeezed. The pain radiated up to my neck and down my arm. Article Continues Below. Incredibly with hindsight, when I pointed this out to Bob I suggested that what I needed was some lunch and a drink. My mouth was dry and I though something to drink would fix the problem. I've no idea why I thought that. No other cause entered my tunnel vision brain! Why should it? I was young, fit and had never been ill. So as Bob descended ahead I followed, getting weaker and more drenched in sweat as I followed carrying my increasingly heavy rucsac. By the time we hit the road I could barely walk, and still the pain persisted. And still I though I just needed a drink. Bob drove to the pub a few miles away, we ordered duck and chips and a couple of pints of beer. I drank the beer. No improvement. The food arrived. I ate some of it, felt nauseous, ate a bit more, then headed for the toilet, where I sicked up the whole lot. And the pain in my chest was getting even worse. And then, in a flash of insight, I remembered that a month before a famous young English comedy actor called Richard Beckinsdale, my age, had died of a massive heart attack. And hadn't my own father died of one when he was 47 years old. Maybe, I thought, that's what I've got. Why I didn't mention this to Bob or anybody else I still don't know, but I went back to the packed bar, asked the barmaid where the public phone was, (it was outside in the car park), went outside to it, picked up the handset, dialled directory enquiries, asked for the nearest Hospital, memorised the number, put my money in, dialled and spoke to the nurse who answered. Those were the days! I explained what my fears were, what my symptoms were, about what I'd been doing, mentioned the Richard Beckinsdale memory, and she immediately said they'd send an ambulance. I suggested instead I get Bob to drive me because it would be quicker. So back to the bar to tell a totally stunned Bob that I thought I was having a heart attack and could we get going, and walked out to the car. The drive was a nightmare on steadily intensifying, agonising pain, with me telling him to drive faster. By now well over an hour had passed since we were coiling the ropes up at the top of the last climb and what I remember is the unrelenting chest pain. Arrive at the local cottage hospital, eventually, walk in and a nurse and doctor are waiting. Go in, lie down on a bed in my tatty old climbing gear, they attach ECG wires to my chest whilst I'm getting really upset about the pain, and I can see pretty soon from their surprised looks that actually, yes, the paper trace shows I am having a heart attack. This is what the young doctor, my age, tells me. Can you stop this pain, I gasp. I felt no anxiety or fear. All I wanted was the pain to stop. He injected something (morphine) and seemingly within seconds the pain stops! Bliss! I'm cured. I've survived. I'm OK, I insist to myself and everyone else. The pain's gone so the heartattack is over and I've survived, so that's it. I start to get up. Thanks, I'm off. That was a close call. Er no, they tell me to lie quite still and I'll not be walking anywhere for a while. The doctor tells me that I'll have to spend a week or so in hospital and maybe a month or so off work. Now I'm worried. I've just been given a fantastic new assignment etc etc I can't take time off! I'm OK. The pain has gone that means I'm OK, right? Wrong. I deteriorated, I'm told, on the ambulance trip to the regional hospital, where they rushed me into intensive car. It was touch and go in the end, but I made it. That was 29 years ago, on the final day of Wimbledon 1979. Afterwards a policy of wait and see was adopted (no angiograms in those days unless your case was desperate enough to merit the risk) and so far, apart from a stent fitted to a dodgy coronary artery when I was fifty and the odd minor scare, I've been OK. We never discovered what caused my original heart attack. My consultant implied that if I'd not been climbing that day and living on a mixture of adrenalin and terror and smoking like a chimney I'd probably never have had a heart attack. My lesson is don't be dumb. I was dumb back then because I didn't think someone as young and fit as me could be having a heart attack, and I was dumb because I was too proud to ask for help when I did. And I was dumb because I smoked. Even dumber because I continued smoking afterwards for two years. How dumb is that! But in a contrary sort of way my dumbness on that day meant that I didn't panic, felt no fear, and stayed calm throughout. If I'd thought I really was having a heart attack I'd have probably been scared to death! Even so, I was dumb and it almost killed me. These days, with greater awareness I'd have told Bob at the top of the climb about my symptoms, he'd have used his mobile to call the emergency services, and I'd have probably been helicoptered off the mountain and straight to the hospital. Ah...progress. Even so, I survived to tell the tale almost 30 years later. Isn't fate fickle? Ian Waterston Sheffield, England Are you a heart attack survivor? Help others by sharing your story: Send it to pages@collectivewizdom.com Related Links What is Angina? 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What Are the "Classic Symptoms" of a Heart Attack for Men and Women? Almost everyone has seen the Hollywood version of a classic heart attack. We expect to see Fred Sanford (remember "Sanford & Son?) grabbing his chest, staggering with a wrenched look on his face, yelling "It's the Big One!" But, it turns out, what a heart attack looks like to others, and feels like to you, may be very different. Here are the symptons the American Heart Association says you should look out for: Heart Attack Warning Signs Some heart attacks are sudden and intense — the "movie heart attack," where no one doubts what's happening. But most heart attacks start slowly, with mild pain or discomfort. Often people affected aren't sure what's wrong and wait too long before getting help. Here are signs that can mean a heart attack is happening: • Chest discomfort. Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes, or that goes away and comes back. It can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain. • Discomfort in other areas of the upper body. Symptoms can include pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach. • Shortness of breath with or without chest discomfort. • Other signs may include breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness As with men, women's most common heart attack symptom is chest pain or discomfort. But women are somewhat more likely than men to experience some of the other common symptoms, particularly shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting, and back or jaw pain. Learn the signs, but remember this: Even if you're not sure it's a heart attack, have it checked out. Minutes matter! Fast action can save lives — maybe your own. Don’t wait more than five minutes to call 9- 1-1. Calling 9-1-1 is almost always the fastest way to get lifesaving treatment. Emergency medical services staff can begin treatment when they arrive — up to an hour sooner than if someone gets to the hospital by car. The staff are also trained to revive someone whose heart has stopped. Patients with chest pain who arrive by ambulance usually receive faster treatment at the hospital, too. If you can't access the emergency medical services (EMS), have someone drive you to the hospital right away. If you're the one having symptoms, don't drive yourself, unless you have absolutely no other option. Source: American Heart Association |
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