What body parts are affected by a heart attack?

What body parts are affected by a heart attack?

Damage Begins to Accumulate Your vital organs—meaning your brain, lungs, kidneys, and liver—depend on a steady diet of blood, oxygen, and nutrients, which the heart pumps to them. If your organs go without these essential supplies for too long, they too will become permanently damaged and begin to shut down.

What happens in the body during a heart attack?

During a heart attack, tissue in your heart muscle dies due to lack of blood flow through your heart’s arteries. A heart attack occurs when the flow of blood to the heart is blocked.

What is the anatomy of a heart attack?

Myocardial infarction (heart attack): A coronary artery is suddenly blocked. Starved of oxygen, part of the heart muscle dies. Arrhythmia (dysrhythmia): An abnormal heart rhythm due to changes in the conduction of electrical impulses through the heart. Some arrhythmias are benign, but others are life-threatening.

What happens when part of the heart muscle dies?

If too much muscle dies, the heart is not able to pump enough blood to the rest of the body. Damage to the heart cells that regulate the heartbeat may cause fatal heart rhythm problems. Sometimes, the heart muscle weakens and can tear as a result of the damage. This causes a fatal hemorrhage (bleeding).

Does a heart attack hurt?

Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes – or it may go away and then return. It can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain. Discomfort in other areas of the upper body.

Can you survive 5 heart attacks?

In 32 years, Former Vice President Dick Cheney has survived five heart attacks. (CNN) — A fifth heart attack, such as the one suffered this week by former Vice President Dick Cheney, is not rare because of advances in modern medicine, cardiologists say.