Doctor Gives Tips To Spotting Heart Attack Early
By: Brittany Escobar
Updated: January 23, 2013
Rescue crews at EMS stations get countless calls of chest pains every day.
KLBK spoke with and EMS station and a heart surgeon, and both say any symptoms, whether it be chest pain or shortness of breathing, those are reasons to go to the doctor immediately.
"Sometimes you can have a heart attack and you not know," said Jackie Buck with UMC EMS.
He said chest pain and shortness of breath are just the beginning of a list of symptoms you could feel before having a heart attack.
"Some people may present symptoms of jaw pain or arm pain," said Dr. Jason Wischmeyer, "the key is to know that something is going on."
Dr. Wischmeyer is a heart surgeon and said heart disease is the number one killer in Americans.
"Patients may need to have relief of obstruction of the arteries themselves typically that s done with two types of procedures one is a catheter based procedure to open arteries the other is surgical intervention which is commonly called heart bypass surgery," he said."
The second procedure is what Mayor Glen Robertson had late Tuesday night.
"Typically the patient's chest is open through an incision through the chest bone," said Dr. Wischmeyer, "the heart is exposed and then either pieces of arteries or veins to bypass areas of obstruction."
Dr Wischmeyer said these types of procedures are serious and patients should expect to get and feel better after a period of weeks.
He says his profession allows him to correct the problem if it's caught just in time, but he says it's important to understand there are ways to prevent it.
"Eating right, exercising, not smoking and visiting their doctor is key to that," said Dr. Wischmeyer.
