REMEMBER, minutes matter!!! If you feel any heart attack symptoms do not delay. Do not wait for more than a few minutes – 5 minutes at most – to call 911. Denial and Uncertainty Often a person’s expectation of a heart attack is uncertainty or denial, they don’t know what to
expect or do. As a result, people often take a wait-and-see approach instead of seeking care at
once. This even happens to people who have already had a heart attack. They may not
recognize the symptoms, because their next heart attack can have entirely different symptoms.
Learn the warning signs; seek an evaluation and treatment if you experience any signs.
Treatment Now that you know how a heart attack can occur, risk factors, warning signs, how gender play a
part, and when to get treatment, let’s talk about treatment.
Treatments for a heart attack work to open the blocked artery to restore blood flow as fast as
possible to prevent or limit damage to the heart muscle, and to lessen the chance of a repeat
heart attack. The main treatments are angioplasty, a stent placement, or thrombolytic (“clot
busting”) therapy. To be most effective in saving heart muscle and your life, these treatments
must be given fast –
WITHIN 1 HOUR of the start of heart attack symptoms.
Beside thrombolytics or clot-busting drugs, other medications also are used to treat a heart
attack and ischemia, as well as to ease chest pain. These drugs include aspirin, nitrates, such as
nitroglycerin, and beta blockers.
Aspirin. Aspirin is now given to all patients who arrive at the hospital emergency
department with a suspected heart attack. Aspirin acts to thin the blood and lessen the
size of a blood clot during a heart attack.
