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Home Health Information National public education campaign: “Make the Call. Don’t Miss a Beat.”

National public education campaign: “Make the Call. Don’t Miss a Beat.”

A woman suffers a heart attack every 60 seconds in the United States. Yet according to a 2009 American Heart Association survey, only half of women indicated they would call 9-1-1 if they thought they were having a heart attack, and few were aware of the most common heart attack symptoms.

The Make the Call. Don’t Miss a Beat. campaign is a national public education campaign that aims to educate, engage, and empower women and their families to learn the seven most common symptoms of a heart attack and encourage them to call 9-1-1 as soon as those symptoms arise.

The campaign, developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health, encourages women to make the call to 9-1-1 immediately if they experience one or more of the following heart attack symptoms:

  • Chest pain, discomfort, pressure, or squeezing
  • Shortness of breath
  • Nausea
  • Light-headedness or sudden dizziness
  • Unusual upper body pain or discomfort in one or both arms, back, shoulder, neck, jaw, or upper part of the stomach
  • Unusual fatigue
  • Breaking out in a cold sweat

For more information on the campaign, visit womenshealth.gov/heartattack.