One of the biggest killers in the US that effects both men and women
is the heart attack. There are over 1 million recorded cases, and around
40% of them will prove fatal due to the fact that emergency treatment
is not quick enough. For the lucky ones that do receive the emergency
treatment required, the survival rate shoots up to 90%. The majority of
hearts attacks are caused by ventricular fibrillation, which is when the
heart muscles will randomly fire, and this causes the heart to flutter
rather than beat resulting in limited or no blood flow. Ventricular
fibrillation tends to happen in people with preexisting heart disease.
In most cases of heart attack there are early stage symptoms that are
often ignored, and as the earlier figures show, this can have fatal
consequences for the patient.
By: Ano Lobb