A friend of the family had a massive heart attack. He was sitting at the pokie (slot) machines at the casino and all of a sudden toppled off his seat. It seems he either died immediately or passed out and then died within minutes. Casino medics rushed over quickly but it was too late. It was very sudden. It is likely that even CPR would not have saved him due to the speed of the cardiac event. The paramedics said they doubt he even realised what had happened. It can happen that quickly. Even if someone was around your dad could have fainted before he even realised something was wrong and then passed away very quickly. In terms of pain- my dad had a heart attack 2 months ago (as have a few other people we know)- okay yes it can be painful- but not like the worst ever pain. Dad said that as bad as his pain was- it lasted for a few minutes- he says he has experienced worse pain due to other things like toothaches. I got the same information from my godfather and another family friend. Also the Coordinator/Nurse who runs my Dad's Cardiac rehab and Seminar program says a large percentage of people do not get that "Hollywood  heart attack"- ie. huge pain, clasp chest. Sometimes there is no pain at all, or Some discomfort in the chest- or none, swollen ankles, discomfort in jaw etc- no real hurting pain to indicate that something is wrong. Like our family friend - who obviously did not exhibit any of the "big" symptoms and so had a heart attack without even knowing it was happening. My sister's father in law did not have symptoms either- except tiredness since the day before, then he fainted and wouldn't wake up. He did not even know he'd had a heart attack until he woke up in a hospital bed.

At the end of the day- we need to work on the factors that increase our risk-Smoking, fatty foods, salt, lack of exercise, obesity, high blood pressure etc in order to reduce the likelihood of a cardiac event. According to Cardiac Rehab walking 30mins a day, five days a week- and you can break that up into 2x15mins or 3x10mins (studies show is JUST as effective) - can have a huge impact on reducing chances of cardiac event. (150 minutes accumulated exercise per week).

This does many things including strengthening the heart, making arteries more flexible, encouraging your heart to grow more vessels (wow!) so that if you do have a narrowing or blockage there are enough vessels to take the blood to where the heart needs it, hence reducing the chance of a heart attack.

A heart attack occurs when blood flow to a section of heart muscle becomes blocked. If the flow of blood isn’t restored quickly, the section of heart muscle becomes damaged from lack of oxygen and begins to die. Cardio pulmonary resussication(CPR) can be provided immediately, following Drug therapy started atleast within a hour.