“What can cause kids to have a heart attack?”
A girl in my town had a heart attack while at school, and it was really scary. Luckily she survived it. I know that this is rare, but it can still happen. What usually causes kids to have heart attacks in the first place, and what are there symptoms?
1 Answer
A heart attack in a pediatric patient is still an uncommon event and is usually due to a vascular or metabolic anomaly ("birth defect"), although the "typical" American diet (high fat and high total daily calories) in combination with a plummeting physical activity level is rapidly dropping the age of onset for more classic causes of heart disease as seen in adults--arterial plaques in the vessels that supply the heart. For the latter, obesity, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases, to name a few, contribute and accelerate the process. Symptoms of a heart attack in a tween or teen age patient are often the same as those reported by an adult: pain in the mid-chest (under the sternum), radiation of the pain to the neck, jaw, or arm (left more than right, but may be either or both), in association with increased work of breathing, sweating and nausea. Family history of "usual" heart disease may help support the concern for symptoms' origin, but still requires the caregivers to maintain an awareness of the possibility in order to identify early on the ill-appearance coupled with symptoms in order to intervene rapidly and call 911, as while "time is muscle" with a potential heart attack, it is even more essential in a pediatric patient, as they will be living with the consequences of the event for much longer.
