This is really my husbands true life story told through my eyes, as I was with him when the first signs of heart attack occurred on that fateful day in August, when he awoke with a slight feeling of discomfort. I want to relay to you how mild the symptoms first appeared, and send a warning to others who find themselves in this position to act a little faster than we did with the first signs of cardiac arrest. HeartAttack waiting to happen, was my first article on this subject.

My true life story begins at 6am on a beautiful August morning when my husband woke to undertake his usual routine of showering and breakfast. He felt a slight discomfort whilst showering. down his left arm, and his neck felt a little stiff. Brushing this aside as symptoms of a bad nights sleep he continued his day. Around midday he felt the same sensation down his right arm, but was not concerned enough to tell me of this episode.

We decided that day to go for lunch, and afterwards popped into the local shops to pick up a few supplies. He was looking a little pale so I told him to step outside for some air where I found him slightly panting for breath and very clammy. He said he was fine and just wanted to get home so that's what we did. I remember I had just bought a facial mask and as soon as we entered the house I began to have a little pamper session as I so often do.

I don't think I was at all aware of the severity of the situation, and put things down to the heat and the fact that we had just come back from a long trip to Las Vegas. At some point I must have looked up at him and asked if he was feeling better, but before the words had left my lips I was already on my way to ringing the doctors surgery. His symptoms were.

• A very grey pale complexion
• Pain down his right arm.
• Cold clammy feel to his skin
• Shortness of breath
• Pain in the central area of his chest

The doctors surgery couldn't find a doctor..go figure, so advised me to ring 999 immediately, which I did, and was asked lots of questions about the condition my husband was in. She told me an ambulance was on it's way and to administer 300mg of aspirin which he had to chew. Within minutes the paramedics arrived and hooked him up to all the relevant monitors.

On arrival at the hospital my husband was hooked up to several machines, and blood tests were taken as he had maybe had his first heart attack at 6am that morning. We were told it can take several hours after the heart attack for the blood results to show signs of heart failure.

He was given medication and we even joked that he was having a bit of indigestion and we would soon be on our way home a little embarrassed that we had caused all this fuss. How shocked we were when the doc came and informed us that hubby had indeed had a heart attack and they did not know at that point the severity of the damage caused to the heart. All they knew was he had to be admitted for further tests, and there was definite signs of damage to the heart

He was told he would have to stay in a minimum of 3 days for tests, and obviously to make sure he wasn't going to have a massive one. He was one of the lucky ones as he had damaged an artery that led no where, so his chances were much greater than a main artery blockage. On the fourth day he was released from hospital with a huge bundle of pills and told he had been lucky that he needed only pills at this stage, but his whole life would heave to change. No more smoking, or eating high cholesterol fatty foods, and the most shocking for him was the exercise regime they were about to embark on.

After 3 months of rehab and careful eating he is on the road to making a full recovery, but this is not to say that he may need an operation for the blocked artery in the future. I am thinking he has been very lucky as there were much worse cases in the hospital, and whoever is up there looking down on us I thank them. This true life story of the signs of heart attack I hope will be useful to all of you whom are worried that someone you know may be having these symptoms.