Time's Up

A medical opinion has it that when your time is up, there is no easier way to cross over than through myocardial infarction.

So what is this mouthful-of-a-pathway that leads to the other side?

It is one that may be provided to us when there are traffic-jams on the roads leading to our heart.

Somewhat like the Damansara toll plaza on a rainy workday evening.

You have a small lorry turned-turtle metres shy of the NKVE exit road and traffic stalls for 6 km on the expressway. None able to get to the toll short of the police and PLUS personnel providing a bypass through one of the free lanes.

Failing which, you have the right conditions for an infarction.

The word "infarction" comes from the Latin "infarcire" meaning "to plug up or cram." In a myocardial infarction there is death of myocardial (heart muscle) tissue due to sudden (acute) deprivation of circulating blood.

In normal lingo, this is termed a heart attack.

Heart muscle dies during a heart attack and loss of the muscle is permanent, unless blood flow can be promptly restored, usually within one to six hours.

Some of the classic symptoms of a heart attack include:

• Pain, fullness, and/or squeezing sensation of the chest
• Jaw pain, toothache, headache
• Shortness of breath
• Nausea, vomiting, and/or general epigastric (upper middle abdomen) discomfort
• Sweating
• Heartburn and/or indigestion
• Arm pain (more commonly the left arm, but may be either arm)
• Upper back pain

But there are also vague symptoms which victims may have ignored like:

• General malaise

or even

• No symptoms (Approximately one quarter of all heart attacks are silent, without chest pain or new symptoms. Silent heart attacks are especially common among patients with diabetes mellitus.)

And a debilitating feeling of tiredness was what Joe had felt yesterday morning when he accompanied Nora for her routine check-up.

But the night before he was cheery as always as he talked to Dr. Jack asking about Nora's allergic condition in 3rd trimester pregnancy.

After dropping Nora off at work, he drove himself to the hospital out-patients clinic whereupon the exhaustion overcame him and he collapsed.

Recognising the condition, the hospital immediately put Joe on Code Blue. He held on for four hours only.

He was 58 years old.

Nora was his daughter. Jack, his brother-in-law.

The hospital found four blockages.

But all he had felt was extreme tiredness.

Could any other way be "easier"? Only Allah knows.

May Allah grant mercy upon his soul, and may his family be patient in their bereavement.





Go here for some heart-attack information for the layman.



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