what happens if a heart attack goes untreated?

Some people have a massive heart attack and never recover. They die. My Dad did that. He had been out digging post holes for a new fence, came in to watch the news and eat lunch, and Boom! he went to sit down and keeled over. We did CPR, but even with my step mom being an ARNP, he passed away.

On the other hand, my mom had her 1st heart attack at 28 and a stroke at 33. She lived to be 50 yrs old. What finally killed her was uterine cancer. She did what the Dr's told her; exercise, eat well(low salt, low fat), and take her meds.

I had my 1st heart attack at 37. I was 5'0", 254 lbs, and had degenerative arthritis. I was taken by ambulance to hospital, but by the time I got there, the pain was gone.

So, because of my age, and gender, I was given pain , an antacid, and sent home with the advice to go to my family doc to be referred to a gastro-enterologist for an upper GI.

I did this. Then, while going on a 'milk run' with my husband who drives a semi OTR, to pick up a trailer and bring it back to the company, we were over 500 miles from home when I began heavy, cold sweats, threw up, had shooting pain from my middle finger to my left jaw, and a squeezing pain in my chest. My husband had no idea where a hospital was, but he got on the emergency channel on the CB, and a state trooper gave him directions and met us at the E.R.!

I don't remember any of that. I remember seeing flashing blue lights, being slung against the door from my husband swinging into the parking lot, and severe tunnel vision...then nothing.

I was in CICU for about a month. When I got out, my dr told me that he had gotten a copy of the original EKG at the hosp when I had the 1st attack. I had been still in a light attack at the original ER.

Since then, I lost 140 lbs, had a double bypass, stents, diagnosed with what a layman calls 'silent heart attack syndrome' and take my meds, eat a low salt, low fat diet and exercise every day. Oh, I forgot for a second...I have an implanted defibrillator as well.

I have 27% heart muscle working, but my cardiologist says that as long as I monitor my health and do what I'm doing, I can have a good quality of life, and may never need a transplant. I am now the age my mother and father were when they died. I have now lived 12 years from the day of my 1st heart attack, and I plan to see my youngest grandson (2 yrs old) graduate from high school.

Untreated Heart Attack

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RE:

what happens if a heart attack goes untreated?

That is about all Iwant to know.

Like how long will it take to die from a minor or massive heart attack.

Sometimes, with very minor heart attacks, people might have them and not even realize it. They will cause damage to the body, but the person might live for many more years. The symptoms can be as minor as dizziness, blurred vision, or slight pain that people might think is just from having tired muscles. You almost never hear about this, but it does indeed happen and is never a good thing for the person's long-term health.

Whether or not the person dies depends on how major the heart attack was, how healthy the person was before they had it, and whether or not they were able to get effective treatment.

A heart attack occurs when part of the heart no longer receives blood and the tissue dies, leaving the rest of the heart with more work to do.

Once tissue is dead, it's dead--there's nothing short of a transplant that's going to change that. However, if one knows that she/he has had a heart attack, they can change their diet and activity schedules to strengthen the cardiovascular system.

People that experience minor heart attacks don't die unless they've had others before; massive heart attack victims will die in minutes if not given a transplant or an artificial heart..

I am in Congestibe Heart Failure i had a Quadruple Bypass 3 years ago.I am pretty sure my mother gave me a mild heart attack yesterday she is a nurse practicioner so she knows not to scream and argue with someone in that condition when they beg her to stop.I want to die as i have nothing to live for.I am 42 muscular attractive extremel agressive towards arrogant disrespectful bad people so i would just keep having as i have 18 % heart function.I am Matt i live in Maine my mother is Sharon.I just want someone to know what she did.7 Billion people the earth will not miss one as i hate this world it is nothing like it was years ago and in a bad way so i do not fear death i want to move on as i am to honest,nice,respectful,well mannered for this world.

A heart attack is when a clot blocks blood flow to the heart itself. If treated there is usually very little lasting damage. If not treated, however, the muscles can actually die, causing all sorts of problems. The dead flesh can emit toxic chemicals that kill more of the heart or surrounding tissue. A piece of the clot could break off and cause more problems elsewhere. All very bad!

Some people have minor heart attacks and don't really know it. The symptoms can last for several days with either a minor or a major one, but unfortunately with a major one, you most likely wouldn't survive for more than a few minutes without treatment.