Coping With Heart Attack

My husband died of a heart attack at age 57 in December 2007 3 days before Christmas. He had shortness of breath when he went out in the cold. I made a doctor’s appointment because I was worried because his father had heart surgery when he was 62. When he went to the doctor he had high blood pressure and the doctor gave him an inhaler and a prescription for blood pressure medication. He told him to make an appointment with a pulmonary specialist because he thought he had asthma then come back in 2 weeks.

The next day I saw my neighbor outside and I told him my husband was having breathing problems. He told me to call his doctor right away and tell him he needed a angiogram because he had the same symptons and his stress test and ekg did not show anything but when he had the angiogram it showed he had blockage in his ateries and he had surgery.

I called the doctor and he said he does not schedule tests just tell my husband to go to the ER but my husband said the doctor said he had asthma and why would he go to the ER. I told him that it could be his heart and the doctor could be wrong. My husband said he would go the next day but he died….When I questioned his doctor he said that he had coronary artery disease and there was nothing he could do….I asked him why he didn’t send him for tests the day he was in his office and he said he thought he had asthma….My husband had a stress test 4 months prior because he was having trouble sleeping so his primary doctor said he need a stress test.

After he died I requested a copy from the cardioligist because his primary doctor never followed up with him after the test. The stress test report showed he had premature ventricular complexes and arrhythmia. I did not know what that meant and I looked it up and PVC’s can be nothing or they can be fatal…All I think about every day is his doctor knew he had a family history of heart disease his stress showed problems, he had high blood pressure high cholesterol, shortness of breath and all his doctor had to do that Tuesday when he saw him was send him to the hospital for tests and he would be alive today. So when you read stories that tell you to call 911 right away when you have any symptoms you must call because doctors can be wrong…