“A woman suffers a heart attack every 90 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” according to womenshealth.gov, from the U.S. Department of Health and Human services (HHS). To combat this challenge, HHS has launched Make the Call. Don’t Miss a Beat, “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.”
This campaign encourages women to call 9-1-1 immediately if they experience one or more of the most common symptoms of heart attack:
- Chest pain or discomfort
- Unusual upper-body discomfort
- Shortness of breath
- Breaking out in a cold sweat
- Unusual or unexplained fatigue (tiredness)
- Light-headedness or sudden dizziness
- Nausea (feeling sick to the stomach)
More information can be found at the Make the Call website, including a quiz, how to survive a heart attack, and information about the myth of the “Hollywood Heart Attack.”
