What does a heart attack feel like and is it an agonising way to die?
I’m not asking about the symptons leading up to a heart attack – more about the actual heart attack itself.
Is it a pain on the left side or middle side of the chest, and what does it feel like and what other effects does it have (e.g. on breathing etc).
When we hear that people died of a heart attack, would this have been most likely an agonising experience, or would they simply have experienced some chest pain before a sudden loss of conciousness?
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Heart attack symptoms vary from person to person. Some people even have silent heart attacks (i.e. they don’t even know they’ve had one). The symptoms can range from chest tightness, to crushing chest pain, neck pain, back pain, arm pain, or jaw pain. This can be accompanied by other symptoms, like profuse sweating, nausea, vomiting, difficulty breathing or passing out, again depending on the severity. The people that suffer “sudden death” typically develop a heart rhythm irregularity known as ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation. That, if it’s quick, is likely to be rather painless. (As an aside, this is the reason for trying to initiate a rapid response and start CPR. If a defibrillator can be used within a few minutes, someone’s heart can be rebooted. If not, well, the consequences are very bad.) On the other hand, if it is a severe heart attack with symptoms as listed above, it can be painful, and the difficulty breathing can be agonizing. If the person dies “slowly”, it can be from the consequences of the heart attack, primarily heart failure and pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs).
What the person actually feels varies from person to person. Some people die peacefully in their sleep from them, while others have excruciating pain. The location of the pain also varies (some in the left arm, chest, back, etc). I’ve never had a heart attack, so I can’t give personal experience, but I have taken care of patient’s while having heart attacks.
I had a minor one at home, years ago and took extra rx and went to bed.
I was sweating, arm hurt, chest hurt.
I hate hospitals and have a tolerance for weirdness in the body. Even though I cant figure out whats wrong with my lymph nodes now.
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Remember reading somewhere that coughing violently during attacks, may prevent it from escalating. Anyone came across something similar?
Shilolo, excellent answer.
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during training to become an EMT years ago, one of the symptoms someone could have during a heart attack was a “sense of impending doom.” I always assumed that would be pretty agonizing.
@echo34 I get that feeling half the time I see that I have a PM waiting.
@echo34 doesn’t that better represent a panic attack?
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