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A man died eight times after suffering fatal heart attacks that typically kill nine in 10 victims.
Evan Wasserstrom, who lives in Los Angeles, was 40 years old when he was rushed to the hospital with a complete blockage in his left main coronary artery (LMCA), which was causing his heart muscle to begin dying.
The LMCA is responsible for supplying blood to the left side of the heart muscle with blockages that trigger the eponymous widow’s heart attack, which earned the nickname because it is much deadlier than other heart attacks.
His heart stopped beating six times in the ambulance on the way to the hospital and two more when he got there before he was placed in an induced coma to protect his brain and reduce the demands on his heart.
Doctors feared he would never wake up, or if he did, he would never be able to walk or talk again. But when they disconnected the life support machine, Wasserstrom, now 48, said he “miraculously came back to life.”
Evan Wasserstrom, now 48 and living in Los Angeles, was rushed to the hospital with a “widows” heart attack. He died six times in the ambulance, when his heart stopped, and two more in the hospital.
The image above shows what happens in a widow’s heart attack, caused by a blockage of the left main coronary artery (LMCA).
Heart attacks affect about 800,000 Americans each year, usually adults over age 65. More than 90 percent of patients survive.
Widow heart attacks are a rare type of heart attack that typically does not occur in men under 45 years of age.
The American Heart Association says only 12 percent of those who suffer the attack outside the hospital survive. Those who are admitted had a 25 percent chance of survival.
Other survivors of the attack, including Rosie O’Donnell, have previously said they consider themselves “very lucky” to be alive.
In the attack, the LMCA becomes partially or completely blocked, cutting off blood supply to the muscle at the front of the heart.
This deprives the muscle of oxygen and can cause it to stop beating completely, also cutting off the oxygen supply to the rest of the body. This is different from a heart attack, during which the heart continues to beat but the affected part may not receive enough oxygen, causing damage, which can be fatal.
Wasserstrom, who works as a writer and is originally from New Jersey, revealed in an essay in the inside that his heart attack was caused by a complete blockage in his LMCA and a 70 percent blockage in a second artery.
She was preparing to take her Labrador, Atticus Finch, for a walk when she felt a sudden “burning” sensation in her left arm.
“It was like the sun was burning inside the veins of my left arm,” he said.
‘(I was) sweating profusely, I felt like I had just gone swimming with all my clothes on.
“It was like no feeling I had ever experienced before.”
He called 911 and two firefighters arrived at his door moments before he collapsed and his world went black.
Wasserstrom was rushed to the hospital, where doctors continued to restart his heart using defibrillators, which deliver electrical shocks to the heart muscle.
At the hospital, doctors performed stent surgery (in which the blockage is removed from the artery and then a mesh tube is inserted to keep it open) to restore blood supply to the entire heart muscle.
He was then put into a coma and placed on a life support machine for five days to help his heart recover and keep beating.
“The doctors didn’t think he would survive, and even if he did, they didn’t think he would be able to walk or talk,” he said.
“But (when they disconnected me), instead of hearing one last flat line on the heart monitor, or taking my pulse but seeing no other activity, I miraculously jumped to life, trying to escape my ICU bed.”
Mr. Wasserstrom is pictured above at the hospital. His heart stopped beating six times on the way there and two more in the unit before he was placed in an induced coma.
Doctors feared that Wasserstrom might suffer complications from the heart attack because other areas of his body had been deprived of oxygen for periods.
The brain is particularly vulnerable to this because the organ’s cells begin to die when deprived of oxygen for just a minute.
Wasserstrom did not reveal what doctors said may have caused the heart attack.
But in previous cases, blockages in the artery have been linked to high cholesterol, high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes, stress and inactivity.
All of these increase levels of inflammation in the body, which increases the risk of damaging the lining of the arteries, leading to the appearance of plaques that can break off and block the artery.
Genetics can also increase risk, and people who have a family history of the disease are at higher risk.
I’ve died EIGHT times due to frightening ‘widow-maker’ heart attacks