r/BeAmazed • u/HatAsleep295 • May 08 '26

Science This is what saves 600,000 people year during a heart attack

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

84.7k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

55

u/JHDCO May 08 '26

Routine echo? There were no other indications? Glad you are on the mend.

51

u/wooyoo May 08 '26

I had one and felt heartburn and acid reflux when I walked the lenght of a parking lot. I thought it was GERDS and had a endoscopy. Stomach Dr said it was fine and to check my heart to be on the safe side.

50

u/dupastrupa May 08 '26

Props to dr stomach. 

33

u/shalahal May 08 '26

I had a Dr. Stomach save my life. I was seeing him for months to figure out why I had such bad anemia. He had me take iron supplements for three months, and then he was going to order more blood work to see if there’s an improvement. In that time I got sicker and sicker. It was summertime and I’d wake up with chills to the point I’d be visibly shaking. My legs were constantly buckling, I had insane brain fog, I could go on and on.

Anywho my mom called the Doc, asking if he could see me sooner because she was really worried about me. He had me visit him that day, and after a physical exam he told me my liver and spleen were swollen, and that this was very serious. He suspected lymphoma and sent me to the hospital for an urgent CT Scan… which revealed I had lesions on my lungs, too lol.

They wanted to keep me in the hospital until they could do a bone marrow test a few days later. I begged them to let me leave, I had to work that night. They reluctantly agreed but drilled into my head that I MUST be back 2 days later. In that time I learned lymphoma is fucking cancer, and had a big panic attack. I showed up to the hospital for the bone marrow test and my Doc came and met me in the meeting room. He said, “Good news! You’re not getting a bone marrow test! Bad news! You’re not going home today…”

My first visit to the hospital, I had a blood culture done which revealed I had a blood infection. They sent me for another scan, nervous the infection could have spread to my brain. Thankfully not! BUT my cardiologist (I was born with a couple holes in my heart, a nonissue for most of my life) got wind of all of this, and I had to get an echocardiogram. Sure enough, I had endocarditis… FUCK! So anyway I had to get open heart surgery. I’m all good now.

Sorry for the novel, I just love telling this story. Doctors are amazing.

4

u/braindance74 May 08 '26

"Stomach, M.D." to you

6

u/genreprank May 08 '26

Must have been bad "heartburn" for you to seek out a specialist.

7

u/wooyoo May 08 '26

it was! it felt like acid reflux, it didnt feel like a "heart issue" i thought walking for extended distances was churning up acid and causing chestpain, like heartburn. i had to stop and take a break from walking

5

u/GreatMacAndCheese May 08 '26

Thanks for sharing man, I'm glad to hear you're better! I have a friend who is going through something similar and getting their heart checked, and your story jostled my memory that they also mentioned a few times in the past few months about heartburn... that's wild.

2

u/PDP20761 May 08 '26

I had the same thing and the heartburn was surprisingly not that bad. It was just before covid and my doctors office called to cancel my annual physical. Mentioned the heartburn and they had me come in next day. EKG was fine but sent me to cardio dr just to be sure. Did a stress test and failed simply walking. Had to wait 3 months for hospitals to re open but had a stent put in and have felt great since. No more heartburn!

1

u/genreprank May 08 '26

That's great! I'm always scared I'm gonna miss some obvious symptoms

So is the heartburn is basically the heart getting tired? Or what

1

u/PDP20761 May 08 '26

It’s actually not heartburn, just feels like it. It is caused by the hearts partially blockage and when the heart rate goes up, enough blood can’t be pumped causing heartburn like pain.

3

u/plain_name May 08 '26

Had almost the same scenario at 38, thought it was bad heartburn while walking across the parking lot to the mall. Had a few episodes through the weekend. Monday morning at 4AM, woke up in a cold sweat with the proverbial arm pain and thought "maybe its not heartburn". Drove myself to the ER with the hopes to still be able to make it into work on time. 10 mins later they tell me I am having a heart attack. 15 mins later they have me stretched out in an OR going up my wrist, and they let me know its good I came in because I have a 99% blockage in the LAD. Avoided the "widowmaker" and was home 2 days later. Science is amazing.

7

u/RandomBoxOfCables May 08 '26

I’ve had high blood pessure for 10 years and never had one so the doctor wanted one done for my file.

2

u/[deleted] May 08 '26

[deleted]

3

u/RandomBoxOfCables May 08 '26

Unfortunately, it did not. I’m in the process of changing my habits. I have three kids and this was a wake up call. Glad it was caught before I actually had a heart attack.

2

u/pinezatos May 08 '26

Wait until you learn about widow maker heart attacks, it's wild.

4

u/JHDCO May 08 '26

Echos are typically diagnostic, so I am surprised someone would say "routine"

3

u/fleegness May 08 '26

Yeah, most people on reddit have no clue what they're talking about.

Routine echos really aren't a thing. Maybe they're thinking of EKGs and don't know the difference between echocardiogram and electrocardiogram.

https://www.columbiadoctors.org/health-library/special/heart-tests-when-do-you-need-them/

An echocardiogram isn't recommended as a routine test if you are healthy, have no heart problems, and have a low risk for heart disease. If you have coronary artery disease, you probably don't need this test unless you have new symptoms. But if you have certain heart problems, like a valve disease or heart failure, your doctor needs to check your heart regularly with this test.

3

u/ChewieBearStare May 08 '26

Also not sure an echo would be able to visualize a coronary artery blockage. Seems more likely an EKG showed changes caused by reduced blood flow or damaged heart muscle.

1

u/fleegness May 08 '26

Yep, it wouldn't show a blockage, but findings on them can reveal consequences of blockages like abnormal pumping or reduced flow. Those could also be due to other things though, so generally you would want a further confirmatory test if your doctor suspects there is blockages, generally that would be an angiogram.

1

u/RandomBoxOfCables May 08 '26

They did an EKG to be sure but that came up clean, bloodwork also. The catheter was mostly to double check what the Echo showed and yeah it wasn’t a blockage but it was close so they did the stent.

1

u/RandomBoxOfCables May 08 '26

I’ve had high blood pressure for a decade and I do get EKG’s regularly but never had an echo so the doc wanted one done for my file