Knowing the warning signs could save your life

A quarter of a million people suffer heart attacks each year in the UK and one third of victims die before reaching the hospital.

Elie Levy survived a near fatal heart attack and says he owes his life to a campaign by the British Heart Foundation - His symptoms were so mild he wasn't worried - little did he know that within minutes his heart would stop.

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Describing his symptoms Elie explains that “I wasn’t sure what it was...It was a discomfort...and I went outside and hoped it would go away but it didn’t. It persisted.’

When Karen Levy’s husband then told her of his sweating and the tightness in his chest alarm bells began to ring ‘there was something about the tone of his voice; he said I don’t feel good and I need help...my immediate reaction was to ring 999.’ His wife’s decisiveness coupled with the fact that paramedics were on the scene within seven minutes helped save Elie’s life - when his heart stopped just fifteen minutes later he was already on his way to the Royal Free hospital.

Elie’s mild symptoms still make it difficult for him to conceive that he almost died and have impelled him to share his experience, in the hope that others won’t ignore the fatal yet often innocuous warning signs. He believes that had he not identified his symptoms with an image from one of the British Heart Foundation’s major campaigns he wouldn’t  be alive today. ‘I read once in one of their campaigns that Hollywood has given everybody a false impression of a heart attack where things are very dramatic and people collapse with pain – what I learnt through my experience is that’s not always the case.’

Now, just eleven weeks on, Elie is adapting his lifestyle and making a full recovery ‘I’m going to do a lot of exercise, I’m going to continue to eat well and continue to look after myself in the best way I can because life is there to be had by me... I’ve been given a second chance and I want to take it up.”

For more information visit the British Heart Foundation's website at http://www.bhf.org.uk/

Also, watch the video from their latest Heart Attack Awareness campaign at www.2minutes.org.uk