Stephen A. Lawrence wrote:
Now it happens that heart attacks usually give some warning signs in the form of high blood lipid levels and/or high blood pressure, and five minutes after sitting down with a doctor, there's a very good chance Fred would have been diagnosed as having a heart problem. What's more, things have changed since 1850, when the probability of benefiting from an encounter with a doctor was something less than 50%. These days, there are actually quite a few things doctors can successfully treat, and that includes some forms of heart disease.
Well said. Amen. My brother survived a severe heart attack about a month ago with apparently no ill effects because he happened to be attending a meeting in a gigantic hotel in Las Vegas, 2 minutes away from an emergency room. (He is suffering from other conditions so this was not a huge surprise.)
A thin, healthy looking guy in my office building felt crummy for several hours the other night, looked up the symptoms on the Internet, and found they indicated a heart attack. He still did nothing. Just couldn't believe it. Finally, he called his adult son who said for crying out loud call an ambulance! He did. He is fine.
- Jed
