Plenty of well-balanced, and at times, compassionate discussion here. I'm glad the thread was allowed to grow in the safe hands of the tvforum members.
As a medical student I'd like to mention further some points raised in this thread, stressing the important, and intending not to disrupt the discussion about the presentation of television that night.
Sometimes people suffer catastrophic heart attacks (myocardial infarctions). Sometimes, most sadly, there is no medical input that can help. This appears to have been one of these occasions.
More often, heart attacks are evolving events that occur over minutes. The patient will usually experience a dull pain - ranging in severity from severe to mimicing indigestion - behind the breastbone, which can spread to the arms. The pain results from the heart muscle being starved of oxygen, usually because one of the blood vessels supplying it has become blocked. The patient may sweat or vomit, but not always. Usually, the patient will remain conscious but impaired, because of the pain and loss of function of the heart.
In Tommy Cooper's case, his sudden collapse and evidence of breathing problems points to a more major event. More commonly, and quite unlike their usual televisual portrayal with groaning and falling, heart attacks mostly feature a persistent, dull pain in the chest.
The mantra for us to remember is 'time is heart muscle'. The longer without treatment, the more heart muscle is lost because it has become starved of oxygen. This heart muscle lost cannot be repaired. I'd urge anyone with chest pain lasting more than a few minutes to get themselves checked out at casualty. You are putting no-one out. There are numerous causes of chest pain, but ruling out the most serious, promptly, is very sensible.
An important misconception for me to stress is 'heart attack' does not equal 'cardiac arrest'. Heart attack is lack of oxygen to the heart, causing heart muscle damage. Cardiac arrest is the stopping of the normal beating of the heart - most commonly as a consequence of a heart attack, but, reassurringly, is a feature in the minority of heart attacks.
As good citizens, friends and work colleagues, we can do our bit by urging those complaining of chest pain lasting more than a few minutes to get themselves checked out at hospital.
People found on the floor, not breathing and without a pulse, have developed cardiac arrest and need intensive CPR - chest pumping, mouth to mouth breathing - until help arrives. I'd urge any forum members without these life-saving skills to consider learning them.
Last edited by RegionalVariation on 25 January 2010 12:40pm - 3 times in total