Heart attack warning ad helps save radio listener | AP News | Our Gazette

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Heart attack warning ad helps save radio listener

Published Monday, March 15, 2010 7:54 AM

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — As a restaurant owner, Zuhair Namouz is busy most of the time.

He's at Greenville's busy Pita House from 6 a.m.-9 p.m. every day except Sunday. When he had a little indigestion early Feb. 20, he didn't think much of it. He didn't have time to think much of it.

"I thought nausea," he said. "I figured it was maybe something I ate."

He had an errand to run, so he borrowed his brother's truck to pick up 50 bags of flour at Costco. While carrying the bags, he had pain in his left arm that traveled into his shoulder. It felt like a needle, and it was accompanied with a "pinching" in his chest.

"Normally, I pick up bags and it's no problem," he said. "But that day, I felt really weak. I just didn't feel good."

Because he still had all of the day's pitas to make, Namouz didn't have time to worry. He started driving back to the Pleasantburg Drive restaurant.

Although he usually listens to public radio in his own car, his brother had a commercial station on. And as he drove, an advertisement came on for Greenville Hospital System's Chest Pain Center, which described heart attack symptoms.

They were the same symptoms Namouz had been experiencing all morning.

"As soon as I got to the restaurant," he said, "I unloaded the truck and then called my wife to come take me to the hospital."

Namouz, 56, knew his family's medical history. His sister had open heart surgery. Two brothers had stents implanted to open blocked heart arteries. And another brother — who'd been having occasional chest pain for almost a year died three weeks ago while taking a nap.

Dr. Trey Chandler and Dr. Graham Parker, physicians with Carolina Cardiology Consultants, saw Namouz in the Chest Pain Center. At first, all his tests blood pressure, EKG and an initial blood test were negative.

But while he waited for a second blood test, the pain hit Namouz again.

"This time the pain was even sharper," he said, "and they gave me nitroglycerin."

On Monday morning, just two days after he'd heard the life-saving warning, Namouz had two stents placed in an artery that was 90 blocked, and on Wednesday, three stents were placed in another artery that was 85 percent blocked.

Because Namouz recognized his symptoms and got the hospital, Chandler said, he greatly improved his outcome.

"If you're having a heart attack," Chandler said, "time is the issue. If you have a blocked artery, and we get to it quickly, there's less muscle damage."

Chandler said Namouz's blockages were "significant."

"People have misconceptions about what a heart attack is," Chandler said. "They'll think they're OK, but they really need to have it looked at to make sure."

While stereotypically many people believe heart attacks are the special domain of older men, obesity, inactivity and poor lifestyle choices mean younger people are increasingly at risk for heart attacks.

In fact, the advertisement Namouz heard in the helpful voice makes several important points: "A heart attack can strike at any age. Do you know the symptoms? Sudden onset of pressure, tightness or pain in the chest, indigestion and anxiety."

More important, the ad stresses immediate action, telling listeners if they have any of the symptoms to call 911 immediately.

While Namouz didn't follow the script exactly, his result was the same.

"Things happen for a reason," he said. "I don't know if it was coincidence or not, or meant to be.

"But they tell me I'll be good as new. That I'll feel 30 years younger. I was lucky."

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