Sudden cardiac arrest may not always be so sudden. New research suggests a lot of people may ignore potentially life-saving warning signs hours, days, even a few weeks before they collapse.
Scientists closely tracked sudden cardiac arrest in Portland, Oregon for more than a decade.
They examined records for nearly 1,100 people aged 35 to 65 who suffered a cardiac arrest between 2002 and 2012. They also used interviews with family, friends and strangers who witnessed the patient’s collapse.
About half of middle-aged patients for whom symptom information could be found had experienced warning signs, mostly chest pain or shortness of breath, in the month before suffering a cardiac arrest, researchers reported Monday.
Furthermore, the study found that only a fraction of patients considered their symptoms bad enough to call 911 before they collapsed and those people were the most likely to survive.
Dr Clifton Callaway, who wasn’t involved in the study but chairs the American Heart Association’s emergency care committee, said: ‘Chest pain, shortness of breath – those are things you should come in the middle of the night to the emergency department and get checked out.‘We strongly recommend you don’t try to ride it out at home.’
The study was published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
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