Heart Attack

Diagnosing possible heart attack is key to getting a patient treatment quickly and effectively.   A heart attack or MI (Myocardial infarction) is an emergency.  The end goal treatment is to get the patient to a hospital to receive treatment to get oxygen to the parts of the heart that are suffering.

So how do we know that the patient is experiencing a heart attack.

First we should gather vitals from the patient.  Checking blood pressure, pulse rate and respiratory rate can give us an idea of what our patient is experiencing.  Someone going through an MI will often have an increased pulse rate, an increased respiratory rate and possibly have increased blood pressure.

Put pressure on the patients chest with your hand.  If the pressure increases the chest pain it’s possibly not a heart attack.

Lastly see if the patient has pain shooting up his right arm into his jaw. This is a common sign and symptom of a heart attack.

When someone is experiencing chest pain its always a good idea to call the paramedics.  These assessment tools are good baseline techniques to assess a heart attack.  The paramedic will have an EKG that will further help them diagnose whats going on.