Patients should not feel intimidated about seeking emergency medical care, doctors say. Besides finding disease, it is our job to make sure that life-threatening disease is not present. We are also happy to give people good news if they are not ill. Pain spreading to the shoulders, neck or arms. Chest discomfort with lightheadness, fainting, sweating, nausea or shortness of breath.
Most people are conscious during a heart attack.
They become unconcious if blood pressure falls too low or irregular rhythms occur. In these cases, doctors may use paddles to restore the electrical rhythms in the heart when beating becomes too fast or the electrical pathways are irregular. A heart attack is caused by the blockage of blood flow to the arteries that provide oxygen and nutrients to the heart muscle. Plaque, or the build up of cholesterol and proteins in the lining of the arteries, ruptures and forms a clot, which obstructs the flow. The sooner patients are treated for their heart attacks, with clot busting agents or artery opening angioplasty, the less risk of death and loss of heart muscle function.