Comedian Rosie O'Donnell survived her heart attack last week. But in a blog post Monday, she also acknowledged that she made a mistake when an aching chest, sore arms, nausea and vomiting made her suspect she might be having one: She did not call 911. Instead, she took some aspirin and saw a doctor the next day.
That is a common mistake: 50% of women in an American Heart Association poll in 2009 said they would not call 911 if they thought they were having a heart attack.
O'Donnell, 50, survived "by some miracle," in her own words. She is recovering at home, a representative said.
But making a 911 call as soon as symptoms start can make the difference between life and death or full recovery and lifelong disability for many people, doctors say.
"Time is so crucial," says Nakela Cook, a cardiologist at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Md. "A heart attack occurs because blood flow is not getting through to the heart muscle. We say that literally every minute does matter in terms of the amount of recovery that might be possible. Time is muscle."
When patients call 911, they get the fastest medical attention, she says: Emergency technicians can start treatment, get people to the hospital quickly and safely and make sure they are seen right away. And if it is a false alarm? "We like to get the false calls so that we pick up the real ones too," she says.
Cook is a spokeswoman for a decade-old campaign called The Heart Truth that has helped raise awareness that heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women in the USA, taking 200,000 lives annually. But, she says, awareness doesn't always mean women will act to control high blood pressure or make a call when troubling symptoms start.
The federal Office of Women's Health and the heart association also have campaigns to educate women about heart attacks and the need to call 911 about symptoms.
O'Donnell did her part in her blog post, at Rosie.com, written in verse: "know the symptoms ladies/listen to the voice inside/the one we all so easily ignore/CALL 911/save urself."
Among the symptoms of a heart attack:
Chest pain or discomfort
Unusual upper-body discomfort
Shortness of breath
Breaking out in a cold sweat
Unusual or unexplained tiredness
Lightheadedness or sudden dizziness
Nausea (feeling sick to your stomach)
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