Heart failure is gradual; myocardial infarction is sudden.
It’s sort of strange phrasing - someone dying of heart failure should feel sick enough - very weak, unable to breath - that he would call for help.
A sudden, massive MI - oxygen-starved heart stops in seconds or minutes - is not usually called “heart failure.”
correct - that’s my point - and that trauma comment was weird, too, I think
correct - that’s my point - and that trauma comment was weird, too, I think
correct - that’s my point - and that trauma comment was weird, too, I think
Heart failure is a drop in efficiency. The heart can compensate by enlargement and a faster beat, so that there are no symptoms. Heart failure can also cause rhythm problems that lead to sudden death, which sometimes is the first symptom.
Andrew had a prior MI, apparently a major one, one of the consequences of which is often some scarring on the anterior wall (where the hearts electrical system is).
This is bad in two ways: the obvious, the heart muscle itself is damaged and weaked, and the not so obvious, they create foci for arrhythmias that can be nearly instantaneously fatal in an already damaged heart.
This is one of the reasons post-MI patients are given beta-blockers. They lower blood pressure and do a few other good things, but they’re also powerful anti-arrhythmics, ease the overall load on the heart and make it less likely for ventricular fibrillation (sudden death) to occour.
Sounds to me like Andrew lived life on the edge and wasn’t the most compliant heart patient.
Unfortunately those things can be suddenly fatal in a man with his problems.