Still wondering....?

[Rosemary349]

I'm still wondering whether a heart attack feels like suffocation.

I have a fear of not being able to breathe due to having a bad asthma episode in the past.  Some of you will know my dad recently died of a ruptured acute MI.  To me he looked like he was suffocating although i've been told that he probably didn't know anything.  Logically i realise this is probably true as a rupture in the heart causes the blood pressure to drop and this rapidly causes unconciousness.

I now can't get it out of my head that if it happened to me i would feel like i was suffocating.  The thought is terrifying.

I am going away for the weekend with friends, this is the first thing i've done since it all happened.  I hope i am not going to have panic attacks all weekend.  Part of me doesn't want to go but i should go, it would be good for me.

Can anyone help?  :-(

[ed34]

It isn't really life suffocating in the sense of being smothered with a pillow or something.
When your oxygen level decreases, you start to breathe faster but if this is caused by a fatal disaster and blood loss is great, it takes just seconds to become unconscious.
After I had my last angioplasty, my Heart raced at over 200 bpm. No blood was really being pushed around the body and within about 5 seconds I was out of it. I do remember breathing faster, but that's all I remember about it.
I also had a similar thing when I was 11 years old. I went through a glass door head first and unfortunately the glass sliced into my neck. I lost just over two pints of blood and although my father was continually shouting and gently slapping my face to try and keep me awake, I remember finally not being able to fight it and passed out.
I suppose it's like a general anaesthetic because you are not aware of anything and can't feel anything going on. You just have to hope someone is around to sort the problem out so you can wake up again.

[Rosemary349]

Thanks Ed34

I'm just in a terrible panic.  I guess it's bereavement.  It's just really frigthening because my dad's mum died of a sudden massive heart attack, so did his aunt (they were both in their 80's though) and he did and he was only 64.  I always thought if you had someone with you there was a chance you would survive....but in dad's case nothing we did would ever have worked.

The whole thing is just frightening, but i guess some of it is my own mind.

It's reassuring that you say it wouldn't be like someone putting a pillow over you and smothering you......see asthma is a bit like that... but that's a bit reassuring.

I've got to go away with friends this weekend, they think it'll do me good, but i just want to stay home and stare at the wall.  lol!

Thanks again for your response  :-)