Matthew experienced some of the lesser-known signs of a heart attack before suffering from cardiac arrest
A “fit and healthy” dad of two died of a shock heart attack after believing he had a stomach bug. Matthew Clark, 46, initially experienced stomach pains and indigestion in January 2023.
At that time, his whole family, who live in Guildford in Surrey, had been recovering from a stomach bug, so his wife Joanna thought little of it. But shortly afterwards Matthew collapsed and went into cardiac arrest.
Joanna, who goes by the name Jojo, performed CPR on her husband for 11 minutes until an ambulance arrived and took Matthew to hospital. Tragically, he then had a second cardiac arrest and could not be resuscitated.
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A post-mortem revealed draughtsman Matthew had been living with asymptomatic coronary artery disease. This led to a heart attack and subsequent failure of the left bottom chamber of his heart.
Jojo, who was with Matthew for 15 years, said: “I always thought I knew the symptoms of a heart attack. You replay it in your mind hundreds of times, of what went wrong and when.
“However, the paramedics said Matthew’s chances of survival were almost zero as he had a full blockage in his coronary artery. The only way he would have survived is if I’d had a defibrillator in my hand the moment he collapsed.”
Matthew had experienced some lesser-known warning signs of a heart attack. According to the NHS, a heart attack can cause nausea and tummy pain.
Now, Jojo has shared Matthew’s story in partnership with the British Heart Foundation (BHF) in a bid to raise awareness of heart disease symptoms. It comes as the BHF released “worrying” new figures that show that cardiovascular disease fatalities are rising among adults aged under 65 for the first time in decades.
The heart health of the UK has seen a more rapid decline at the onset of the 2020s than in any other decade for over half a century. There’s been an increase in both the rate and number of deaths among working-age adults, aged 20 to 64, due to cardiovascular disease.
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The death rate escalated to 55 per 100,000 in 2023 from 49 per 100,000 in 2019, marking the first sustained rise in at least a generation. Deaths among working-age adults surged by 18 per cent, from 18,693 in 2019 to 21,975 in 2023, averaging 420 per week. Cardiovascular disease is a broad term encompassing conditions that affect the heart or blood vessels. These include heart attacks, strokes, coronary heart disease, and heart failure, among others.
Specialists at the BHF labelled this trend as “worrying” following decades of progress where deaths from conditions such as heart attack and stroke had nearly halved since the 1960s. This progress was credited to research, medical advancements, and declining smoking rates.
The exact cause of this recent surge in cardiovascular deaths remains unclear. However, it’s speculated that several factors could be contributing, including an “increasingly” unhealthy population, growing health inequalities, COVID-19, unprecedented strain on the NHS, and obesity.
Symptoms
Matthew suffered both a heart attack and cardiac arrest. These are actually different medical emergencies.
A heart attack occurs when one of the coronary arteries becomes blocked, stopping the heart’s supply of blood. The heart can then begin to die due to a lack of oxygen.
In comparison, a cardiac arrest occurs when the heart stops pumping blood around their body causing the patient to stop breathing normally. The BHF says: “Many cardiac arrests in adults happen because of a heart attack.
“This is because a person who is having a heart attack may develop a dangerous heart rhythm, which can cause a cardiac arrest.”
Symptoms of a heart attack include:
- Chest pain – a feeling of pressure, heaviness, tightness or squeezing across your chest
- Pain in other parts of the body – it can feel as if the pain is spreading from your chest to your arms (usually the left arm, but it can affect both arms), jaw, neck, back and tummy
- Feeling lightheaded or dizzy
- Sweating
- Shortness of breath
- Feeling sick (nausea) or being sick (vomiting)
- An overwhelming feeling of anxiety (similar to a panic attack)
- Coughing or wheezing.
Whereas, if someone is in cardiac arrest, they collapse suddenly and:
- Will be unconscious
- Unresponsive, and
- Not breathing or not breathing normally – this may mean they’re making gasping noises.
A heart attack and a cardiac arrest are both emergency situations. If you think someone is experiencing either of these you must call 999 straight away.