What I learned from a Widowmaker Heart Attack

This coming weekend will mark 6 months since I suffered a "Widowmaker" heart attack after a short run in the park on October 24, 2020. A Widowmaker (doctors call it a “STEMI”) heart attack is when one of the main coronary arteries (Left Anterior Descending) is partially or completely blocked.  In my case, the artery was 100% occluded (blocked).

Odds are pretty good that you die from this kind of heart attack; I'm one of the lucky ones. 

I'm writing this to share two things in the case that others might learn from my experience: 1. What the signs and symptoms were that I experienced; 2. What I learned from the experience.

My heart attack came on with no warning, though in retrospect, I may have been experiencing some mild symptoms leading up to it- occasional arm tingling, decreased energy/fatigue.

The heart attack felt like bad heartburn focused in the center of my torso, just below my rib cage.  I did not experience any pain on the left side of my chest, in my left arm or in my jaw.  I knew something was wrong after chewing some antacids and finding no relief.  I had sudden cold sweats.  I experienced a feeling of panic that I have now read is a common symptom.  Many people experience it as an “Impending sense of doom.”  I experienced that.  I experienced an intense feeling of restlessness i.e. I could not get comfortable nor could I pinpoint exactly what hurt, or describe accurately what I was feeling.  I am told, due to panic, I was hyperventilating, though I don’t remember that.  I do remember feeling the result of hyperventilating: body tingling, light-headedness, cramping in my arms and hands.  Lesson learned: it’s hard to know what a heart attack feels like if you’ve never had one.

I mentioned above, that I was one of the lucky ones. My “luck” was a combination of the following factors:  my wife was home and she’s a nurse.  She noticed something was very wrong and called an ER doctor friend.  Within 30 seconds, the doctor friend told us to call an ambulance.  The ambulance arrived within 10 minutes, I was in the ER within the next 10 minutes and I was up in the catheter lab in the following 10 minutes.  So, approximately 30 minutes from the time of onset, I was on the table with a catheter in my artery poking around my heart. From a medical emergency point of view, the system worked perfectly and almost certainly saved my life. 

Once the blockage was cleared and a stent placed, I felt immediate relief.  It is standard procedure to spend the next few days in the ICU though I felt like I could get off the table and walk home.  In total, I spent four days in the hospital and then I did walk home. Subsequent testing has shown that I have no discernable residual damage to my heart muscle.  I completed a four month outpatient cardiac rehab process at the hospital and am happy to report that through exercise and diet I am feeling great, and I’m in the best shape, physically, that I’ve been in many, many years.  

So what did I learn from this near-death experience?  The biggest surprise for me was that I discovered I was not afraid to die.  This is not because I’m special in any way or braver than anyone else. It’s because I realized that fundamentally, I have lived a good life. That my relationships are solid, my affairs in order (I have a will, living trust, advanced directive, etc…)

At the deepest level, this is what having a heart attack taught me:

• Know who you love and make sure they know you love them;
• If you have relationships in need of repair, take the first step to repair them;
• Have your affairs in order: will, living trust, advanced directive, leave instructions for all essential systems (banking, insurance, etc.)  Remember to name your beneficiaries!
• Clean any “skeletons” out of your closet, now.
• If you have health insurance, USE IT.  Go to your doctor, test your cholesterol, engage in preventative practices and take your medication as directed.

Finally, and most importantly, CALL AN AMBULANCE.  When the paramedics arrived at my house, all I could do was apologize for the inconvenience- I thought I was having a panic attack and heartburn!  They told me over and over that we had done the right thing and they were right; statistics show that I wouldn’t be here sharing this with you today had we not.