February is “heart month” so my objective for today is to help you recognize a heart attack. The heart is a muscular pump that beats 100,000 times a day to distribute 2,000 gallons of blood throughout the body every day. For all that work, it’s important to recognize when something is wrong with it.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov) states that each year, about 1.1 million Americans suffer a heart attack. About 460,000 of those heart attacks are fatal. About half of those deaths occur within 1 hour of the start of symptoms before the person reaches the hospital. It is critical to identify when someone is having heart trouble so you can call for help.

An “angina attack” occurs when placing the body under emotional or physical stress, causing the need for oxygen to rise. Restricted or partially-blocked arteries, mainly due to a build up of cholesterol or plaque, won’t allow enough oxygen to get through, causing chest pain. 

Unlike angina, a person does not have to be doing anything strenuous to experience a heart attack. If the blood flow is stopped, such as from a blood clot in a coronary artery, the oxygen-deprived muscle begins to die.  In medical terms, this is called an Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI), interpreted to mean a sudden onset of death to the heart muscle (a heart attack).

What are the signs and symptoms of a person having a heart attack? The person will start to feel “discomfort” in the center of the chest, just under the breastbone. It can follow with a sensation of a squeezing or pressure, like someone is sitting on the chest. Some people will believe it is simply indigestion. Pain can radiate outward from the center of the chest into the shoulder, arm, neck, and jaw, generally on the left side of the body.

The person will turn ashen or pale, the skin will feel cool to the touch, and he will begin to sweat profusely. These are the tell-tale signs of shock. The patient may credit the sweating to a particularly humid day or from feeling uncomfortable. The chest pain results in feeling short of breath. The patient may be nauseous or vomiting.

If the person sits down to rest and is actually experiencing a heart attack, the pain will not let up but will continue longer than five minutes. If these signs and symptoms are present, call 9-1-1 immediately! Do not try to drive yourself (if you are the patient) or the patient to the hospital. Call 9-1-1!

Help the patient to sit (not lie) down in a comfortable position. Do not give the person anything to drink as this may cause vomiting.

If you are not trained in CPR, contact the American Red Cross or American Heart Association for class schedules. Learning CPR will provide training to recognize the signs of a heart attack. That knowledge may just save a life – possibly yours!