Heart attack, stroke, or both?

My mom passes away a month ago, and I'm trying to figure out if she had a heart attack, stroke, or both. I don't know if it really matters either way, but I need to tell my future doctors.

My mom was taken to the hospital for shortness of breath, pressure in chest, being light headed, and BP 236/110. The er said she did not have a heart attack, but they admitted her. The next day they did a couple of tests. The cardiogram showed the front half of her heart wasn't working. They ended up doing angioplasty and put in a stent. (to me this sounds like a heart attack)

They had to give her a blood thinner to put the stent in, but she was fine for an hour or so afterwards. We were told that because her blood was so thin and her bp so high it made the blood move very fast and burst a blood vessel in her brain. This caused immediate death.

The death certificate says:
Unstable angina pectoris hypertension
Cerebral arterioselorosis
Cerebral Hemorrhage
Cardiac arrest

I can't find anything at all on line about Cerebral arterioselorosis.

What should I tell the doctors that my mom died from?

Thanks in advance.

Kathy

[CCF-M.D.-RCJ]

Kathy,

I'm sorry for your loss.

From your description, your mother experienced an Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS -fancy talk for a blocked heart artery).  If an ACS is untreated, it often leads to a heart attack.  It sounds like the heart attack was at least partially averted due to the placement of the stent.

During treatment for the ACS, your mother was treated with blood thinners, a very appropriate treatment for most persons experiencing an ACS. A small percentage of persons who are treated with blood thinners will develop a bleed in the brain, which is often devastating, as was the case for your mother.  Persons with advanced hypertension are at particular risk for stroke when treated with blood thinners.

If someone asks how your mother passed away, you can tell them that while she was being treated for a heart attack, she experienced a hemorrhagic stroke.

I hope that helps, and again, I'm very sorry to read of your loss.

[Healthyself2]

Sorry for your loss.  To my mother, doctors were gods and the Mayo clinic was Mecca, but she did start losing faith in later years.

Unfortunately, in your Mom's case, the cardiac intervention with administration of blood thinner was the cause of death.

Whether good judgement was used in choosing to intervene is the question.  Was the proper diagnosis of root cause determined?  Was the risk of intervention properly assessed?  Was it reasonable to assume that administering blood thinner with that type of BP was very risky?

Unfortunately when you enter a hospital presenting with that type of problem, it's highly likely that you will undergo angioplasty with stent placement.  It's a belief system subliminally influenced by huge revenue generation for doctor's groups and hospitals.  

Under those circumstances, careful diagnosis, and rational conservative treatment plans pretty much go out the window.

Best Wishes

[andy73]

Sorry about your loss.

Try looking for Cerebral arteriosclerosis
<<http://www.legalpointer.com/displaymonograph.php?MID=138>>

Hope that helps