Heart attack - reaction to Beta blockers

[eegjonnie]

Hi,
My grandmother (80+)has has a heart attack in which the consultant cannot work out when it happened! She was complaining of indigestion so we brought her to the doctor and she was admitted to hospital.
They started administering some drugs through a cannula which seemed to be working ok but the cannula kept coming out and her skin could not cope with that so they had to give her the beta blockers orally which made her seriously ill and her stomach also bled! Because of this they cannot even give her asprin to thin the blood because of the bleeding!
So far they have tried around 4 beta blockers but she is reacting to all and if they cannot administer any drugs there is a high chance of a second attack!

Has anyone heard of anything like this before and can they suggest anything at all to help! She is an old lady but the heart and mind of a young person and was never sick in her life before this!

Thanks you
Jonnie.

[CCF-M.D.-PPB]

Women often present with atypical symptoms when they have their heart attacks, indigestion being one of them.  Your grandmother most likely has heart failure as a result of the heart attack.  She probably got a 'reaction' to the beta blocker because the left side of the heart is weak to begin with and the beta blocker makes it even weaker.  We hold beta blockers in patients with heart failure because they can make them worse.  In that particular situation the risk of heart attack is outweight by the risk of heart failure, so it is OK not to give the beta blocker.  She should have an echocardiogram done to assess her heart function.  I suppose the physicians there are holding catheterization until her bleeding gets better.  They may not even do a catheterization at all.  Others, who have a history of asthma or reactive airway disease can also develop a reaction to beta blockers.  They usually develop wheezing and may even need to be intubated.  Those patients should avoid beta blockers as the risk of complications from spasm of the lung airways is higher than the risk of heart attack while off the beta blockers.  The bleeding is unrelated to the beta blocker.  It is most likely from the blood thinners which she received when she first came to the hostpital with a heart attack.  She most likely has an ulcer in the stomach which started bleeding when she got the blood thinners and now since some of them stick around in the body for a while she continues to bleed.  She should have an scope of her stomach done to see if the ulcer can be cauterized.  She should also be on proton pump inhibitors such as protonix or nexium.

[Healthyself2]

Beta blockers are one of the standard drugs used after M.I., but not required medication.  It just slows the heart rate, lowers B.P. and supposedly lowers the workload on the heart.

There are other classes of BP meds which do the same thing (but don't mess with heart rate).  If she can't take aspirin, perhaps she can take Plavix.   If she can't take a blood thinner, it still doesn't mean she will have another heart attack or can't take other meds.  Agressive lipid control meds are immediately in order.  Get her out of bed for light exercise every day.

If they make your mother sick, they are not helping her.  They sometimes put the young docs in to practice on the old people, and some of them don't know what the hell they are doing.  Perhaps you need to get her to a major medical center and get a very experience cardiologist, before these guys do her in.

[eegjonnie]

Hi Guys.
Thanks for your comments. Really appreciate it!
I am getting the same vive from both that maybe they should not be trying the Beta Blockers! At this stage they are on a 4th beta blocker to see if that works! So I am now very concerned!
I will talk to the Doctor this morning and tell ask him a lot of questions based on your comments but I assure you that I will not mention where I got this info!

Thanks again!
Jonnie