The Heart Foundation NZ shows what a real heart attack looks like
Three numbers saved Susan Garrard's life. 111.
The Invercargill social worker put her continual exhaustion down to possible glandular fever or a virus, her jaw pain down to toothache and hot flushes down to pre-menopause, but she couldn't explain her shortness of breath.
It wasn't until she phoned her GP to make an appointment in March last year that the nurse told her to dial 111 for an ambulance. She was 44, had just suffered a heart attack and was rushed by helicopter to Dunedin Hospital for triple bypass surgery.
"I was typically symptomatic of having angina. I was dismissing everything and my heart was the last thing on my mind," says Garrard, who lost both her father and older sister to heart attacks at a young age.
"If there is anything going on that you don't recognise as being normal, don't dismiss it," is her message to people.
Dr Gerry Devlin, a cardiologist at Waikato Hospital, says Garrard is one of the lucky people who make it to hospital after suffering a heart attack, where these days the chances of survival are about 95 per cent.
Half a century ago, the odds were 40 per cent to 50 per cent.
"One in two people we never get to see," says Devlin, referring to people who have a heart attack and never make it to hospital.
Devlin, director of the Heart Foundation, is fronting this month's Heart Attack Awareness campaign, stressing the life-saving importance of calling 111 and knowing the signs of a heart attack.
Now in its third year, the campaign features a multi-award winning television advertisement showing a man in the background quietly having a heart attack, while others give a "Hollywood" performance in the foreground.
"It's about trying to tell Kiwis to take chest pain seriously," says the doctor, who urges everyone who has prolonged chest discomfort, breathlessness, feeling sick or sweaty to call 111.
"Speed is critical," says Devlin.
Invercargill heart attack survivor Susan Garrard and partner James. Photo/Supplied
If you call an ambulance, staff can start treatment straight away and reduce the chances of permanent damage to the heart.
People do not join the dots and seek medical help quickly, says Devlin.
Recent Heart Foundation research showed that 80 per cent of New Zealanders, aged 45-plus, cannot identify all of the major heart attack symptoms and only 20 per cent recognised that nausea is a common symptom.
Even more worrying is more than 40 per cent over 45 would not call 111 immediately if they experience heart attack symptoms.
Research also found the top reasons behind delaying that call include: "Don't want to waste people's time if it's not a heart attack", "I think it will go away by itself" and "It's probably not a heart attack, the symptoms aren't quite right, I am healthy".
